


Turning Tides

by PenguinKiwis



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: (Its FMA so ofc theres blood), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Blood and Gore, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Darius (FMA) is the canon gay, Dysphoria, Fluff and Angst, Heinkel is def a dad, Kimblee Switches Sides AU, Kimblee is sorta a dad?, M/M, Not Beta Read, Rarepair, Sort Of, its THERE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-07
Updated: 2021-01-27
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:07:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 35,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27439321
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PenguinKiwis/pseuds/PenguinKiwis
Summary: The Kimblee who left prison is not the same Kimblee that went in. Unfortunately for the Homunculi, he's a great actor. Fortunately for the rest of Amestris, he's decided that he'd rather not be a dog for the Homunculi.HeinKim and a "Kimblee Switches Sides AU"
Relationships: Heinkel/Zolf J. Kimblee
Comments: 28
Kudos: 50





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uh, hi. I'm here. Am I one of the only people who thinks that Heinkel and Kimblee is an interesting dynamic and is currently in the process of writing a whole ass AU for it? Yes.
> 
> Just a warning, since the first chapter has a lot of just, general overview, there are a lot of small footnotes and explanations at the bottom. Not mandatory to read but hey, they might be fun. Helps with world-building.
> 
> Unlike other fics I write though, there will be more skips and breaks in the lines because I just felt as if it was better this way. OCs for unnamed Citizens met in Kanama and headcanon heavy for Kimblee and the others, since there wasn't as much flushed out for them and now they're in my sandbox.
> 
> Anyways. Don't own FMA. HeinKim rare-pair.
> 
> Enjoy

Solf Josiah Kimblee had never once considered himself a "good person". In his pre-military days, perhaps, he could have been considered a person who did good, but he was born a child with blood already on his hands.

Then again, nearly anyone in the Araunya Slum community got blood on their hands eventually. There was very little one could do in getting around _that_ fact. Either you were born with blood on your hands because you brought your own mother's death, or you became desperate enough to kill— be it for food, money, or something else.

So, yes, Solf J. Kimblee came into the world with blood on his hands and learned from a young age that simply living was a victory in and of itself. And that killing was a fact of life, something normal and an everyday occurrence— until he started venturing from Araunya.

He was eight when he first made it to Kanama, running from his bastard of a father out of fear. They didn't kill their own in Kanama. They protected and cared for them.

He was thirteen when he snuck into Central, wearing dirty clothes and sticking to the back alleys— he stole some nicer, though not fitting, clothing in order to sneak into the Central Library.

He was fourteen when he discovered Alchemy.

He was seventeen when he killed his own father— blew him to bits out of a mix of anger and fear when the man was strangling him for running off to Kanama again. James Waller Kimblee never bothered anyone ever again. No one bothered with the body, his son burned the sad excuse for a house down because the Araunya citizens _didn't_ care.

Twenty when he joined the Military as a State Alchemist.

Solf J. Kimblee grew up with blood on his hands long before joining the military. He grew up with half a mind rooted deep in Araunya's kill-or-be-killed mentality and the other half in Kanama's care-and-be-kind mentality— all wrapped up in the guise of a polite albeit unnerving genius. He grew up and grew detached, accepting orders from a route that he deemed the most interesting. The one that gave him the most freedom.

But after six years sitting and wasting away in prison, he found that side of the oncoming battle… boring.

Or perhaps it wasn't that. Perhaps it had to do with his mind coming out of the fog of madness as his mentality assimilated with the Philosopher's Stone's loud wailing.

Perhaps it was his Araunya-bred nature giving away to the Kanama-nurtured side.

But the fact still stood, Envy was an idiot. They all were.

Why did people assume that when they left another alone for six years and then return, the person would be the same as when they were left?

What idiot gave that same person a tool of mass destruction and sent him off on his own without even asking where his loyalty still was?

He had still been detached when he had arrived in North City and had found himself disappointed in Envy and the homunculi.

But he had his role to play before he got the full scope of the situation.

And then he was in the hospital after a disastrous encounter with Scar, being threatened by _another_ Ishvalan and he really wasn't feeling up for dealing with that. He let the man talk. It was easier for him.

The sooner he got to speak with Armstrong at Briggs, the sooner he could hope to leave this state of limbo in his mind. The new stone was causing him to lose focus, whispering to rejoin the madness of endless power again.

Alluring, sure, but he would have to pass.

So he bided his time, dealt with the Homunculi's dogs— internally he laughed, he had broken the collar and chain, even though General Raven and that Gold-Toothed Doctor assumed otherwise— and recited what he supposed were the right things to say just in order to keep up his antagonistic facade.

He dealt with Major Miles _again_ and waited for the moment to talk to General Armstrong while going over his file on Scar— to think, an Ishvalan that he had seen before had survived. Imagine that. General Armstrong was being monitored, apparently, by General Raven. The moment Raven was gone he would be passing a message to Armstrong, that is if Miles didn't put a bullet through his head on the principle of existing. The man had already threatened to kill him once, Kimblee had no illusions that he wouldn't be against doing it in the fort and writing it off as an accident.

He met the Elric Brothers, purposely pissing Fullmetal off by addressing his brother instead— by god the boy was young, he must have been the same age as Jonas by now. He missed the brat who used to hang onto his legs back in Kanama.

He reported to Bradley, dealt more with Major Miles— he _still_ hadn't gotten a chance to talk to Armstrong, and it really was Raven's fault— and the rest of Briggs, and it was painfully obvious that Miles was just trying to stall him.

And now Miles had just told him that Raven had vanished.

Kimblee blinked slowly as the words sank in. Then his lips twitched upwards.

Of course. He should have known. Briggs' law was the fittest survived— and while the soldiers listened to Central, their loyalty was to their Queen and their Queen alone.

Pushing off the wall, he rolled his shoulders, saying nothing and letting Miles and the other officer wait for his response. The longer they waited the warier they got and it was a bit amusing to him.

"Finally," he said after another long moment, taking his hat off and brushing his hair back. "Couldn't you boys at least have sped the process up? Time is precious."

There was silence and he glanced back over at Miles and the other soldier, a brow raised. "What is it, Major Miles?"

"Do you not care that Lieutenant General Raven is gone?" Miles asked, raising a brow in return. "If something were to happen to him—"

"Oh please, Major," Kimblee sighed, waving him off as he turned on his heel, "You can drop the act of false concern. I really don't care if Raven got shot in the head, I only regret that I couldn't take his lecherous ass out myself. Now that he's gone, I'm free to do as I please."

He stopped suddenly, humming and putting his hands back in his coat pockets. He glanced over his shoulder, smiling. "Provided that Bradley doesn't send anymore little soldier ants up here, that is. Nonetheless, there is some business to take care of at the foot of the mountain. Best we get to that, if you would prepare a car for me, Major Miles?"

He was certain that Armstrong would hear about his reaction from her loyal dogs. Good. Sewing seeds of confusion was always fun. She was smart, though, she would figure it out on her own.

.:.:.:.:.

There was an itch that Kimblee couldn't scratch all of a sudden.

It was bound to happen, he supposed. He knew so the moment he saw his face in the mirror to clean himself up upon getting notice of his release.

And though it had been a few weeks, the lingering effects of being in prison for six years were… still with him. Briggs was large, yes, but it was cramped at the same time. Being in a large room put him on edge because he wasn't used to it, hell, just laying down and not having a pillory locked down on his wrists was still something he was getting used to and it took weeks to even get up to Briggs.

When he looked in the mirror again he was reminded of every other physical effect still lingering.

The thin and pale skin stretched over his ribs, the concave stomach. The scars, the lingering bruises on his wrists, the dark bags under his eyes.

It was going to be one of those days then. A pity, since the next stage of his plan was just about to be set. The Rockbell's girl had arrived, a fake trump card had been set into play. If Armstrong knew what he was doing, he didn't know. The four Chimeras— Heinkel Potez, Darius Wright, Zamapno Quinn, and Jerso Masina— that Bradley had oh-so kindly assigned to him had arrived with Winry. And just at a first glance, Kimblee decided to have Darius Wright and Heinkel Potez to stay close to him. He would need allies outside of the Briggs forces and it would be harder to sway the two over to his side if they were rooted in the Homunculi's plan. It would be easier to work out their loyalties himself rather than let Fullmetal have his sway them.

Jerso and Zampano would be easier, he could tell that, despite their acting, they were still uncomfortable in their bodies.

Just like him.

Kimblee tossed aside the fancy suit without care and grabbed his barely used uniform. He hadn't bothered wearing the blue thing since he was released, he saw no point, but it was the only other set of clothes in a different style that he had.

He tossed it on without much of a care, leaving the coat undone. His eyes remained slightly unfocused as he felt a part of him slip away. The Kanama side of him would not be appearing any time soon, he realized.

Stepping back out from his quarters, he glanced at Heinkel and Darius before he started to walk towards the Neil's workshop. He wondered briefly if any of the four Chimeras had actual ranks within the Military or if Bradley had just handed them uniforms and sent them on their way. Had they been soldiers before the Chimera experiments? Or had they been hand-chosen from civilians? All that Bradley had given him on information was their names, photographs, and their Chimera fusion. Lion, Gorilla, Boar (with a porcupine twist? He wasn't really sure), and Frogfish. An interesting set of combinations.

A few heads turned as he walked in long strides— the Briggs soldiers certainly used to him donning white instead of blue as he passed them. He ignored them all, though the itch that crawled along his skin and made him just want to be in something _else_ persisted. He ignored that too, as he opened the door to the workshop— just as Edward shot off the worktable and hit the opposing wall. Jerso and Zampano looked vaguely confused despite their stoic masks and Kimblee raised a brow.

He watched as the boy rocketed off that wall and back onto the worktable— suddenly reciting the periodic table.

"Is his brain broken or something?" he asked as he stepped into the room. The Rockbell girl— Winry— turned to him, surprise reflected in her eyes as he and the other two Chimera walked in.

"He's just lost it," she responded after a second of shock. Though that shock was quickly replaced with ire as Edward continued to prattle off elements. Kimblee shrugged but left it at that as the girl went back to fixing up the Alchemist's automail. He, meanwhile walked over to the coffee carafe in the corner, digging his wallet out and tossing a hundred-fifty cenz into the jar next to it before pouring himself a cup.

The payment was technically unnecessary, but Neil and Patricia were some of the more pleasant folk in Fort Briggs. He didn't mind playing along.

Speaking of the two, he honestly couldn't taste the difference between any of the coffee here, despite Patricia's insistence that each of them had their own tastes, Kimblee told her his tastebuds were probably gone anyways because eating six years of one shitty prison meal per day did that. He glanced back to the four Chimeras standing by the door.

"Coffee?" he asked and they turned to him, Heinkel's face was impassive, Darius' brows were furrowed a bit, Jerso's eyes showed his shock, and Zampano… hm, Kimblee couldn't tell from him, but his lips might have quirked up just a bit.

"I'll take one, sir," Zampano ventured and Kimblee gave him a light, but meaningless, smile. Heinkel relented as well, giving Kimblee nothing more than a nod.

The other two politely declined.

Kimblee paid another three-hundred cenz before pouring two more mugs for the Chimeras. The technically fake cost wasn't a problem for him, it's not like he had anything else to use his money for. The pay for being in Ishval had sat for six years gathering dust and the Military had paid for the trip up anyway. He had enough on him.

He crossed back over to the four Chimeras, handing one mug to Zampano, then the other to Heinkel. He blinked, and couldn't help but stare when the blonde took the mug.

Damn.

He knew that the people chosen for the Human Chimera project were top tier physically— and he certainly knew there were larger people, Darius, for example, was taller— but Heinkel's hand looked like it could probably span across most of his chest.

Kimblee tilted his head, raising a brow when Heinkel caught him staring.

"What's your rank, Soldier?" He asked instead, glancing back towards Edward and Winry for a moment.

"Second Lieutenant, sir, all of us are," the blonde man said after a second. Kimblee hummed, taking a drink of his coffee before he responded.

"Do any of you mind if I refer to you informally occasionally? I fear I tend to slip when it comes to ranks and his use surnames only instead," he admitted with a slight laugh.

"No sir." Heinkel shook his head, nods of agreement from the other three showing that they didn't mind either. Kimblee nodded a bit as well, raising a brow as Buccaneer came in, and then almost took Edward's head off in the time span of about five minutes.

The man had some sort of gaudy, diamond-tipped, clawed automail.

How… interesting.

He hid a grimace behind a drink of coffee when Winry joined Neil in a conversation about automail. She seemed to be having fun, though he never understood the fascination with gears and mechanics.

Kimblee glanced to Edward instead.

"She's pretty passionate about her work, just like her parents," he commented, finishing his coffee. "I love people like her."

The blonde whirled around, a face that was a hilarious mix of shock, terror, and confusion on his face.

"You—? But you're so old—" the boy fumbled. Kimblee snorted.

"Relax, I'm not a pedophile. I mean it in the sense that her passion is admirable," he assured him with a chuckle before he frowned. "I'm not _that_ old, how rude."

Edward still looked skeptical and Kimblee just sighed before he shrugged.

"Besides, I happen to swing the other way," he added. Edward's brows furrowed, but Kimblee glanced back to Jerso and Zampano, nodding to the two. Both of them got the message and they left the room to go and guard Alphonse instead.

Glancing back to Edward he gave him a relaxed smile. "Now that Miss Winry Rockbell's fixed up your automail, you're no longer in danger here," he told the boy. "Which means I can relax as well."

At the boy's confused look he turned fully to face him. "I need to talk to you about work, Fullmetal Alchemist."

.:.:.:.:.

He supposed he could have been better with the verbal code, and not attempted to rile Fullmetal up when he told him about the plan to carve the blood crest into the north, but oh well. At least his resolve not to kill was something that perked Kimblee's interest, though it was quite rude of him to accuse him of being a Homunculus.

Please, he had much more style than that. Though, being Envy would have certainly been a plus in terms of personal preference, that one certainly did have an interesting ability.

(It wasn't because his skin was itching again, at all. It wasn't because it was too tight, too loose, not his, eyes that were too dull to be his own, hands too long, too pale, tired bags under his eyes that couldn't be his, and skin that was not his, not his at all, nothisnothis **nothis** _ **nothisownskinnot—)**_

But he wanted to test the boy.

He wanted to see fully what the other side had. He knew the other side had Mustang— he knew Mustang had a group, and he knew the group had been split apart— and they also, most certainly, had both of the Armstrongs. And Maes Hughes. Hughes really would have been enough for Kimblee, really. He wasn't fond of kids and he hadn't been able to see the man since he was let out— he was basically sent on his way as soon as he was let out of Prison. He had liked the man, even if it was only because the man was the only one who bothered to try and converse with him in Ishval.

Well, hopefully, he'd have time to talk to him _before_ the Promised Day.

But he digresses. How deep did the resistance go? Would Fullmetal have the resolve he needed in the end? Or would he, as soon as he had the chance, take the Philosopher's stone and flee? Kimblee had tested him, asked him to do something that tested his morales, and the boy had agreed— but the code was there in Edward's voice as he spoke to his brother, it was painfully obvious. And the two certainly knew that the stone was made up of souls.

(Kimblee had also given Armstong a coded message as well, if she got it would be another thing. And if she chose to tell Miles anyways then Kimblee would eat his fucking tie. Half of what needed to happen relied on Miles trying to get rid of him.)

Still, as he waited for the brothers to finish their search for Scar, he had to commend them. Had he been anyone else, he would have been fooled by their plan and ploy.

But he let his role as the antagonist play out in false shock and false anger.

Scar was still a pain in the ass, but he'd let it go. Winry was smart, but not smart enough. People underestimated him too much, thought that he was easy to rile up.

Had today not been one where he was only half paying attention, one where he wasn't in his own body, he probably would have been more pissed off. But everything was an echo today, he was drifting because of the damn itch that wouldn't fucking leave him alone.

He was only half-listening to whatever was being said to him. The soldiers complaining about the storm.

He let out a sigh before standing abruptly, walking out of the room, and sending for Heinkel and Darius to meet him in the next room over. Miles, on the other hand, had gone off to go talk to the Elric brothers, but he didn't really care. Lines were starting to connect and things were starting to come together. Jerso and Zampano hadn't returned, but he doubted they were dead. They were strong enough, and so there was a higher chance that they turned over to the other side.

Good.

The Homunculi were interesting, and a part of him did want to see if they would win. But humanity proved to be more interesting to him— and he did admit, he did miss the weird sense of having a shared goal with others on equal footing, even if it was at an arm's length and even if it was only because it was forced. The homunculi didn't see humans as equals. He knew that from the start, but his need to find someplace to belong and be _useful_ had died in prison. Mostly.

In a slightly sick twist, Kimblee found himself looking for a new 'master'.

He would have to fix that mentality again.

He looked up when Heinkel and Darius stepped into the room and he motioned for them to sit. They did, slightly wary as he sat as well, legs crossed at the knee and hands clasped in his lap.

"Before anything else happens, I need to ask you both something," he said calmly, face impassive. "Namely, how loyal to the State are you?"

Both Chimeras glanced at one another, an air of nervousness settling over them as the three of them sat alone. Kimblee raised a brow.

"If you are then I won't fault you," he said, unclasping his hands. "But if it's the case, I'm going to have to silence you myself. For reasons, I don't exactly want anyone in Central figuring out my stance at the moment."

"It's not that we are," Heinkel said quickly, raising a hand up slightly to stop him from moving. "Though, from your words, it seems as if you aren't either… sir."

He let his lips twitch upwards before he leaned back. "Correct."

"Was everything just an act then, sir?" Darius asked. He hummed, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Some of it was."

"Then we will be going after the Elrics to assist them?" Heinkel prompted. He held a hand up, stopping him.

"Not yet," he told the two of them. "I don't expect to be understood, but there are still things that need to be done here as antagonists. If there's one thing I know, there's something to come from pretending to be dead. Just play your parts and everything will go well."

He stood, putting his hands back in his uniform pockets. "Major Miles and the rest will be trying to kill me. As bait, Fullmetal will probably use himself. Both loathe this face I don, so I don't really mind the attempt on my life."

Watching the confused faces of the two was amusing. Perhaps they would be asking for an explanation when all was said and done. But for now, he was their commanding officer, he didn't have to answer them right now.

And he wouldn't.

He tilted his head a bit, closing his eyes and forcing his mind to settle a bit more. "Act in lines to our prior plans," he told the two as he walked out of the room. "But try not to kill Fullmetal."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for all the notes, but this should be the only chapter where the notes are a giant wall of text.
> 
> The J in Zolf J Kimblee technically means Jackass Jimbles for Zolf Jackass Jimbles Kimblee just like how the J in Anthony J Crowley stands for Anthony Janthony Crowley. For the sake of seriousness, though, I've decided that it stands for Josiah. Josiah is Hebrew and it means "God (Jehova, specifically) has Healed". It's funny because Kimblee's dead. On the topic of names, Kimblee's dad is James, but will be referred to as "Waller" instead— Waller is one of the Australian Royal Navy units. It's a Collins-class sub with the SSG 75 Pennant Number.
> 
> I've chosen the route where Kimblee's from a not-so-well to do slum outside of central, not super far from Kanama called Araunya.
> 
> I know that Kimblee ambiguously can be classified as Sociopathic despite the only indication to something not mentally sound in actall text is him agreeing that he's a heratic. Taking that, I'm twisting Kimblee into a slight MPD/DID person in this story— one of these personalities is more sociopathic than the other, which also becomes a bit more dissociative at times. These will sometimes be referred to Araunya and Kanama.
> 
> In this canon, Kimberlee was able to be the absolute madman that he was and somehow managed to hear to the souls of the stone. I wholeheartedly believe that philosopher's stones can and would cause madness at close proximity, especially for someone who has a weakness to exploit— in Kimblee's case, his need to be strong and in control (which i do plan on getting into later since it has to do with his dad). Kimblee had the stone in his gut for six years and it was always with him in Ishval— he's certainly a candidate for stone madness. Using the Anime, it's clear that there is some sort of madness as Isaac is seen becoming increasingly unhinged and he was in possession of a smaller stone or amplifier (i never really understood that part).
> 
> Bonus: dysphoric he/them Kimblee because Kimblee would feel more or less out of his skin and body outside of the prison clothes, and actually cleaned up, unchained, and not closed up, etc. It's not so much of an "I'm not the right gender" dysphoria, more of a general "I don't recognize my body anymore".
> 
> Darius and Heinkel's last names are from another fanfic I read while Zampano and Jerso's last names are from the actors' surnames from the Italian film La Strada. Also, did y'all know that they were all second lieutenants, or was I just supposed to look that up myself? I also saw noticed how in the manga, Heinkel stands about a head or so taller than Kimblee. He's a giant and I accept this. I don't accept how Bones animated Kimblee, I feel like he'd be much smaller in weight because of spending six years in prison. So yeah, Kimblee is small compared to Lion Dad™ and I guess that's my new canon. Heinkel in human form could probably snap his neck. (And Kimblee would probably thank him).
> 
> This fic is going to be taken from the manga more than the anime despite me referencing both and the "I'm not a pedophile" line is directly from the manga. It was cut from the anime and that's a shame. Also, so many of Kimblee's "how rude" comments were too and I cry every time.
> 
> Kimblee would not know about Hughes' death in my canon. Envy didn't tell him, he never asked. A personal headcanon of mine is that Hughes made attempts to try and understand Kimblee in rival and Kimblee appreciated that.
> 
> Once again, sorry for all the notes, but this should be the only chapter where the notes are a giant wall of text.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case it wasn't super obvious, this fic does have a lot more language than is in my other Fics. Also, blood and gore warning up ahead, but it's FMA and Kimblee. That's a warning in and of itself. Surprisingly, Kimblee doesn't kill anyone.

Bringing the building down on them had been a spur of the moment thing, but it did its job well.

When Kimblee came too, he was mostly buried under rubble and his already injured body certainly wasn't pleased about that. That gold-toothed doctor had certainly "done his best" (Kimblee hadn't wanted his hands on his person longer than needed), but that "beast" meant that a few well-placed hits or a heavy weight pressed on the injury would result in the painful problem of internal bleeding. He doubted it was at that point at the moment, but it still was painful.

Kimblee blasted the rubble off and to the side of him as soon as he could. None of his limbs were broken, but his ribs were probably cracked. There was a low buzzing in his ears, already driving the almost constant headache of his tinnitus to an even sharper pain.

He hated silence after he caused a major explosion— the euphoric feeling of casting the perfect one had run it course and he lost interest when he developed tinnitus— and the mines certainly were silent right now.

He'd have to fix his ears soon, he briefly realized, along with that _goddamn itch across his skin_ that was back.

He pushed it to the side, looking around him for a flash of red that wasn't blood.

It didn't take him long to find both Philosopher's Stones— the one Edward had kicked out of his hands and the one that he had been holding when they all fell— and move over to where the other three were.

The Chimeras were both leaning over Edward, who looked far worse than any of them there. The boy was pale, bloody, and— was that a steel beam sticking out from his side?

 _That_ wasn't exactly something that was good, ever. He was in front of Edward in a few quick strides, kneeling down and frowning as he placed a hand on the steel beam.

Edward's eyes filled with pained hate as he saw him enter his vision.

"Pull the beam from his stomach," He ordered, looking up at the two chimeras. Darius startled, looking a bit uncomfortable as he looked at him.

"Won't that kill him, sir? He'll die from blood loss," he pointed out and he rolled his eyes.

"How do you think I healed so quickly after fighting Scar? Alchemy can do a number of things," he told him before he grabbed Edward's real hand, pressing the stone he got from Ishval into it.

"Fullmetal," he said slowly, carefully, and almost gently. "Focus. I can't do this for you, but you _have_ to use the stone. The souls within cry for revenge against the State, if you die, you'll be the one failing them. Use the stone, use your _life,_ and transmute your body back into one piece."

He ignored the blood that the boy spat at him, but he nodded weakly, eyes determined and angry. Kimblee's expression melted a bit, and he saw shock pass through Edward's eyes when he gently nodded.

"Good," he said before he looked up at Heinkel towering over him even when kneeling. "You can handle this?"

"Yes, sir," the Lion said, grasping the steel beam while Edward steeled himself for the pain that was sure to follow.

"Do it," he uttered and Heinkel looked to Kimblee. He nodded and the Lion pulled. The scream that left the boy was gut-wrenching, but the blonde boy's jaw snapped shut, his hands coming together and pressing them over the wound. Alchemic sparks flew once again as he forced the wound closed before the blonde slumped back, gasping for breath and certainly still in pain, the stone fell from his grasp and Kimblee picked it up, slipping it into his pocket.

"A temporary fix," he told the two Chimeras as Edward slowly came back to the surface. "He needs a real doctor, one who won't blab to Central or Briggs. There are still seeds of Central's Loyalists in Briggs, I'd rather they not know about us being alive."

Heinkel shifted a bit, nodding and standing slowly before motioning to Darius. The Gorilla Chimera grunted but lifted the half-conscious teenager onto the Lion Chimera's back.

He stood up slowly himself, cracking his neck and shoulders before glancing upwards towards the remains of the building above them.

"Let's go before Miles decides to send a team down here," he said, reaching up and pulling his hair free from the tie. Hm. That helped a bit with the itch, though he had done it simply to add a bit of a disguise to himself. He glanced back, hearing a noise from Edward.

Apparently, the boy's face had planted right into Heinkel's mane and Kimblee barely hid a snort as Edward managed to complain about getting a face full of mane.

Yeah, the kid would be alright if he was complaining already.

"Smothering… me…" Edward whined and Heinkel chuckled.

"But it looks cool right?" he teased, making Darius roll his eyes. "King of the jungle, baby."

"Certainly looks soft, Second Lieutenant," Kimblee said over his shoulder, glancing back with a raised brow when Heinkel almost tripped. Darius snickered and the Lion glared at him.

This was going to be an increasingly interesting venture.

.:.:.:.:.

It had taken them a while, but Heinkel, Darious, and Kimblee managed to find a town. Coincidentally, there was a doctor there that was willing to keep her mouth shut— for a price. And Kimblee was well acquainted with this doctor and her pricing. Unfortunately.

Ezra was more than the average sadist from Araunya and she ended up bleeding Kimblee dry both literally and in terms of money. But she was the doctor they found.

Ezra was a good doctor, despite her stab-happy nature, and she had fixed them up without asking those pointless questions on how they got so injured. And of course, she and her wife, Mia, had helped when the Military caught wind of their location, stalling a few in their office by playing the 'helpless women' cards as the four of them made their escape.

On the bright side, it had only been a month of avoiding getting caught and, on a personal note, the itch that had been making Kimblee feel _wrong_ had decided to leave him alone the moment he was out of uniform and into something looser. The detached haze had left when Ezra stabbed him when they first showed up— her wonderful Arauyna greeting never ceased to amaze him, and he had told her sarcastically— but her wife had patched him up quite well. He could tell that Edward was a bit confused when Kimblee introduced Mia as Ezra's wife upon waking up, but he supposed he would teach him about how the slums were like when they got to that bridge.

The boy's whole "I don't trust you, tell me everything you know, you can stay because you're useful" conversation with him had been a source of amusement for him while they were waiting for him to heal, for the first day at least. Day two was only silence as Edward thought through the morning.

Kimblee knew that he was sulking because he had tricked practically everyone at Briggs, but then he bounced back to his former self.

Or at least what Kimblee assumed to be his normal self.

The next day they had to escape Ezra's clinic because Central had gotten wind of where they were. 

In the end, Kimblee found out that Edward was having too much fun hijacking cars with Darius while they had been on the run.

"I feel like I should be disappointed dad," Kimblee uttered as he climbed out the passenger side of the latest car that Edward had hot-wired for them to get out of the last town that they were in. They had shaken off the Military a week and a half ago, but it was still important for them to keep moving and meet up with Alphonse's group in a timely manner.

"Say what you want, fireworks-bastard, but you gotta admit that I'm good at what I do!" Edward snarked as he climbed out from behind him. Kimblee rolled his eyes as Heinkel closed the door to the driver's side of the car, Darius' door closing not too much later.

"Thank you, great and powerful Fullmetal, your illegal actions have saved all four of us," Kimblee deadpanned, catching the boy's punch as they stood in the tall grass at the base of a hill.

"This the place?" Heinkel asked as he walked over to them. Kimblee let go of Edward and the boy turned, nodding as he gazed up at the dilapidated and abandoned house on the hill.

"Yeah," he said, starting to move up the hill, Darius following him. "I used this place to meet up with Colonel Mustang a while back since it's pretty close to Central."

Kimblee glanced at Heinkel and shrugged, following Edward and Darius. Heinkel followed.

"The Homunculus know about it," Edward continued, "But I bet they figured I'd never come back!"

"You shouldn't underestimate the Homunculi," Kimblee warned as he opened the door slowly. Edward shrugged, pushing past him into the house.

"Well, we're sone step ahead of 'em now, anyways!" the blonde declared, "Al is definitely he—"

Darius suddenly hit Edward upside the head.

"No one's here, you idiot!"

"No one's been here, either," Heinkel agreed, sniffing the air. Kimblee closed the door behind them, walking around. He ran his hand against one of the wooden crates, then lifted it, rubbing the dust off of his fingers.

He turned, hearing Heinkel sigh. "Looks like there's really nothing here," he said as Kimblee walked back over. Darius was currently yelling at Edward in the meanwhile.

"Maybe so, but if Fullmetal says that this is a safe-house of sorts, then we should be alright to rest for a day or two," he said. Heinkel nodded before he sniffed the air again, he watched him as the Chimera's eyes narrowed.

"Something's here…" he said before he drew one of his guns. Kimblee slipped his gloves off silently as Heinkel gestured to the others. The four of them moved to press against the walls on either side of the door— Darius and Edward on one side, Heinkel and him on the other side.

Darius dimmed the lantern as uneven footsteps sounded on the wooden floorboards. There was a stagger and Edward peered out from behind the door. The blonde stiffened suddenly and then there was a loud thump.

Edward sprang into action, leaping from his hiding spot, the three of them following him slowly.

"Lin! … Oh, wait… who are you now? Greed?"

Kimblee blinked as he and the two Chimeras approached, Heinkel keeping his gun trained on the dark-clad figure that was face down on the wood.

Then a loud growl reached Kimblee's ears.

"H… Hungry…" mumbled the lump on the floor. He turned his head, looking up at the four of them.

"Thank goodness… I never thought I'd meet a friend in a place like this…"

There was a beat of silence.

"Yeah, that's Lin," Edward sighed.

.:.:.:.:.:.

Lin who was also the Homunculus Greed had eaten all of their rations and that was just the tip of the ice burg apparently.

Greed had, according to Lin who was in control at the moment, cut all ties from the other Homunculi, and delivered the message that the creature called 'Father' who was under Central was going to open the Gate on a certain day. Kimblee confirmed this with a nod when Edward glanced at him.

Now, apparently, Greed was with them— as their self-declared boss— and they were headed towards Resembool.

Unfortunately for Kimblee, he was beginning to feel more and more like an exasperated father as the days dragged on. Was this how Lukas felt when he told him that he and the other kids were driving him insane? Must be.

Except instead of watching over six teenagers who kept getting in fights with one another, Kimblee was watching as Darius and Edward argued over ration sizing. The five of them had been on the run for well over three and a half months now and this was a common occurrence, but it seemed as if none of them remembered that yes, Kimblee was fine with portions being absolutely tiny compared to the rest of them.

Kimblee sighed, falling backward onto his jacket. Despite the winter chill that was in the air, Kimblee had taken off his jacket and shirt to tend to the fire. Though it never really did get that cold down south where they were.

That dysphoric itch had come back with a vengeance earlier that day and it felt better to just let his hair down again and take off the loose shirt. He had Edward transmute it into a tight-fitting tank top instead. The boy had done so a slightly questioning look that didn't get better when Kimblee tried to explain it by just telling him that it was just a bit of dysphoria.

"Should we break them up?" Heinkel asked, pulling Kimblee from his thoughts.

"Hm?" he blinked, looking up at the Lion who was sitting on a log next to him— just as Edward slammed his automail leg into Darius' shin.

"Ah. I suppose we should," he said as Darius let out a howl of pain, followed by death threats.

He sat up, brushing hair from his face before he brought two fingers up to his mouth and whistled— stopping Darius from smacking Edward upside the head again.

"Elric, come here," he said, gesturing to the spot in front of him.

Edward's eyes narrowed. "Why?"

He rolled his own instead. "Just come here. Might as well teach you one or two things if you're going to be the Hero of the People."

The blonde scowled, but stomped over, sitting down with his arms crossed.

Kimblee cracked his neck a bit before he crossed his legs. "Now, since we have time on our hands and we've already gone over why I was me at Briggs, I think it's important that we go over something else."

"I don't see what else there is to go over," Edward grumbled and Kimblee reached over, flicking his forehead.

"Don't think I didn't see how confused you were when you woke up from your surgery and I introduced Mia as Ezra's wife," he said flatly. "And, you looked absolutely confused when I told you that I swung the other way when we were at Briggs."

That made Edward stop his grumbling.

"Fullmetal, how familiar are you with homosexuality?"

Better just to cut to the chase for this topic.

The blonde thought for a bit. "Well… I know what it is— homo meaning the same, so same sexuality, attraction to the same sex. But I, uh, I don't really _know_ what it is?"

"That's fair. You grew up in Resembool, are familiar with Central, and a lot of the places you've visited have military connections. It certainly doesn't help that you're a State Alchemist," he told the boy, waving off the boy's fumbled attempt. "As you said, homosexuality is the attraction of two people of the same sex— or gender— though it's often referred to simply as being 'gay', among many other things. Ezra and Mia are both gay— or lesbian, as they're both women."

Edward was nodding along, eyes oddly determined as he listened. "So, when you said you swung the other way…?"

Kimblee nodded. "That was slang in one of the areas I grew up in for the fact that I prefer men over women."

The blonde looked deep in thought, mulling it over before Darius came over and slapped the boy's shoulder.

"And so Mister Kimblee makes three of us here!" the Gorilla chortled, though the slap made Edward face-plant right into the dirt. The boy shot up, seething.

"Watch it, donkey!" he yelled before blinking. "Wait, three?"

Darius chuckled, nodding. Kimblee jerked his thumb at Heinkel. "There's a reason why I chose these two to stick closest to me over Zampano and Jerso."

"So it's a gangbang, eh?" Greed asked as he dropped down from the tree above. There the bastard was, Kimblee thought it was oddly quiet.

Edward looked even more confused as Heinkel choked on the water he was drinking out of his canteen. Darius made a face and Kimblee clapped his hands together, blasting Greed with a minor explosion.

"Sorry, but, no," Kimblee sighed as Greed scowled as he stumbled back. "Actually, I had no real clue, since I just flipped through the paper, but I had a feeling..."

He shrugged as the homunculus huffed, but sat down behind Edward and Darius, seemingly intent on listening in as well.

"We're all single," Darius confirmed with a dramatic sigh. "Though Heinkel, you're more Demisexual, aren't you?"

The blonde was still coughing but nodded nonetheless. Kimblee blinked at that before he shrugged.

"I'd say I'm surprised that it wasn't on file, but the Military never really cared to distinguish us," he said. Edward frowned, arms crossed again as he thought even more.

"I don't get it," he finally said, looking up at the three of them. "What's um… Demisexual?"

"Just means that I have to form an actual bond with the person before starting any physical romantic relationship with them," Heinkel said, finally calmed down and shifting a bit. His eyes flickered to him for a moment before back to his canteen.

Kimblee blinked.

What.

What the fuck was that.

Was Heinkel coming on to him?

He pushed the thought to the side for the moment, not exactly wanting to touch on that at the moment. Instead, he turned back to Edward. 

"There's a lot of this and that under the surface of simply being gay. Lots of terms that are used, depending on how specific you want to get," he told the boy, who nodded slowly. "Unfortunately, the closer to Central and the higher up on the class areas you get, the more conservative people tend to get— right down to Homophobia."

Edward adjusted his sitting position, frowning deeply. "Have you dealt with it before?"

Kimblee shrugged. "Once or twice, I'm actually from the Araunya Slum, and homophobia's pretty rampant despite it being so poor. The other State Alchemists learned pretty quickly not to provoke me when we were all on the field," he told the blonde truthfully with a smile.

It was a frosty smile, one that was full of danger and if he decided to pull his lips black to turn it into a grin there would be too many teeth.

Edward edged back a bit. "Oh. I'm sorry about that..."

"Don't be, it's just a fact of life," Kimblee assured him, dropping the smile and returning to his pleasantly-neutral expression. "I simply wished to clear up some of the confusion you seemed to have, Fullmetal."

The blonde hummed, arms crossed as he looked up at the sky. "I have a question, well, two actually."

"Alright, shoot," Darius said. "The resident homosexuals'll answer you."

"I thought this was my school lesson to teach," Kimblee deadpanned, but his lips twitched upwards when Darius burst out laughing and Heinkel chuckled next to him.

A year ago, had anyone told him that he would be sitting in the woods with two Chimeras teaching the youngest State Alchemist in Amestris about the— as Ezra called it— "Gay Agenda" he would have thought they were crazier than he was.

But here he was.

And he felt his Araunya nature giving away to the Kanama nurtured side, finally.

Edward made a face but waited until Darius was done laughing to continue.

"So, uh, how did you know?" he asked, fidgeting. "Know that you were…"

"Gay?" Kimblee supplied and he nodded. Kimblee hummed, tapping his fingers on his knee before he answered.

"It varies," he said finally. "I simply found men attractive, though things did change after stepping on the battlefield — it got rather complicated and…" he tapped the side of his head. "Things got fuzzy up here. Having the Philosopher's stone in such close proximity and being the test rat for it certainly didn't help."

Heinkel grunted. "I think you just figure it out along the way," he said simply, "Everyone has their own ways of finding out. Some people can tell when others might be, others can't. It all depends."

"If you're wondering about that though, we're all sure you're straight," Kimblee added, making Edward sputter. Both Chimeras laughed at the blonde's flushed face as his jaw went slack suddenly.

"Anyways," he said after a moment. "What was your other question, Edward?"

Edward made a face but shrugged it off. "Earlier, when you wanted me to change your shirt, what you said about, uh, dysphoria… does it have to do with...?"

Kimblee pursed his lips a bit as Edward trailed off. "Well, that's an interesting topic," he said. "You know what the word means, right?"

The boy nodded and so he continued. "If you're asking if it has to do with sexuality, then yes. If you're asking if it has to do with my own sexuality and identity _specifically_ , then the best answer is only slightly."

"I don't get it."

Kimblee uncrossed his legs, stretching out a bit. "Dysphoria refers to a few things, usually it is in reference to when something is dissatisfactory in life, but for others, it's in reference to when someone's physical body doesn't match their gender. It's also in line with the term 'transgender'. See where the normal definition and the one that we use changes?"

Edward nodded. "It's a similar context but the end result is different, the target of the feeling."

Kimblee nodded, then pointed to himself. "I'm a bit different. I'm sure you know, but I was in prison for six years. For me, I wasn't let out of my cell unless it was necessary— a cold shower every two and a half weeks under monitor because of the high danger I was filed under, or a medical emergency. If there was a fire or accident in the prison, I was one of the few who would be left to die. The only time was able to see my own reflection were in small moments when there was enough light to reflect it off the stone's surface."

Edward looked a bit concerned about that but nodded nonetheless. And it could have just been his imagination, but he swore a low growl came from Heinkel.

"My… unique form of dysphoria stems from this— and probably a number of other things," he said, tapping the side of his head again. "Occasionally, I don't feel correct in my own skin. It could be disassociation playing a part, but either when I see a reflection of myself or when a certain itch settles over me, is when it happens. I dealt with it in Briggs by changing into Uniform, which helped a bit."

He reached down, tugging the front of his tank top before letting go and letting it snap back into place. "But this is much better for settling the itch for now. I have no idea if it will be a permeant fixture in my life or if I'll readjust to my body after a while."

Edward looked puzzled but contemplative as he nodded. "I had no idea about any of this."

"Most don't," Heinkel said, shrugging a bit. "It's not exactly common knowledge."

"But if you still have questions later, feel free to ask," Kimblee agreed before looking past Edward to Greed— who had decided the conversation wasn't worth it and was laying on his side with his back to them.

"You too, Homunculus."

"Piss off, crimson bitch," Greed said back, flipping him off.

"Crim— How rude!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, the only noncanonical ship in this is HeinKim, so yes. This is an EdWin story but just minorly. Secondly, no one asked for a lowkey parental Kimblee but here we are.
> 
> Bonus: Pre-flirting flirting between Heinkel and Kimblee.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> Ezra and Mia will be explained a bit later. This isn't the same place that Heinkel and Darius went to in canon, this is a place Kimblee knows of instead, and Ezra's from the same place Kimblee was born.
> 
> Another bonus: Street clothes! For reference in regards to what Kimblee's wearing, though: 2003 Mullet Kimblee's red outfit but all black because Kimblee's a dramatic ass in all black.
> 
> In my eyes, I feel like Amestris is a very conservative nation, but the farther from Central or other major military areas— mostly in the slums and the smaller towns that just don't have a major military presence— the less likely people will care in terms of sexuality and orientation. Since Resmbool is the higher end (sorta, it's like. the mid-upper middle class), homosexuality isn't talked about much, so Edward is only vaguely aware of it.
> 
> Meanwhile, Kimblee's from the slums because that's just my headcanon.
> 
> And obviously, because this is a HeinKim story, Heinkel is also gay. Darius is slightly canonically gay? Like, it's in the 4Koma and if you consider that canon or not is your choice, but I accept it as a silly little bit of canon. You can bet your ass that, if it weren't for the laws of the land, Hawkeye would have tied up Selim's shadows.
> 
> The next chapter will have a bit more filler, Heinkel being an obvious lion, and Kimblee having an existential crisis. And then Kanama. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit shorter. The usual notes below. I'm not dead, but it is finals week. Luckily I update every ten days instead of every week.

Edward, Kimblee found out, was about as graceful as a cat when it was in water, when he was also in water. Of no fault of his own, he supposed, Automail couldn't be easy to wear when swimming, but either way, he wasn't that graceful. The blonde teen also had none of the patience of the said animal, so the combination of the two ended with a failed attempt to teaching the blonde teenager to fish— and with Kimblee sending him off to go and help Darius and Heinkel with getting firewood.

Perhaps he should have thought it through because of course Edward would end up getting into a fight with the two Chimeras while Greed loafed about and was generally unhelpful.

A loud splash made Kimblee sigh as he tugged the makeshift fishing pole out of the way, eyeing the sinking teenaged Alchemist with a raised brow.

The five of them were camping out by a river, which was great for getting more food than just their rations if possible. But horrible because for some reason the two Chimeras and Edward had decided that fighting in the river of all things was the best idea out of all of the possible options for sparring grounds.

Sighing, he stood, holding his hand out to Edward, who grasped it and he hauled the teen out of the water.

"If you could stop throwing Fullmetal into the river," Kimblee called over to the trio while pulling the blonde from the water, "Maybe I could actually catch something."

"Instead of complaining, help me kick Donkey's ass!" Edward complained as he flopped down on the bank, clapping his hands together and drying himself off. Kimblee made a face.

"I think not, Fullmetal," he told him, brow raised. "I pick my battles and trying to take on Darius and Heinkel alone is a horrible idea. You're too small to do much."

"WHO YOU CALLIN TINIER THAN A SNOWFLAKE THAT MELTS BEFORE YOU EVEN HAVE A CHANCE TO SEE IT!?"

"Go fight Greed or something," Kimblee said back casting his line again and sitting back down. Edward stomped off, shouting for Greed while Heinkel kicked Darius down into the water.

Kimblee's brow twitched, but he remained where he was, watching the line bob up and down slowly.

He must have dozed off sometime between then and getting thrown into the river, because suddenly his eyes were snapping open and he was soaked to his neck in what would have been waist-deep water.

Greed and Edward were both cackling on the shore and Kimblee gave them both an unimpressed look, standing as he clapped his hands together. Edward made an intelligent retreat, deciding to make a run for it before Kimblee lunged at Greed, firing an explosion right at point blank against the Homunculus' face.

It didn't do much aside send the avatar of Greed flying back a few feet— couldn't do much against the damn Ultimate Shield he had— but it was cathartic either way. Thats what he thought at least, as he walked up towards the camp, wringing his hair out before he peeled off his soaked shirt and jacket to do the same.

A slight noise made him glance back as he stood in front of the fire, drying his pants and fending the rest of the chill off. A coat hit him in the face, one that was far too large for him to wear and smelt of wood, and smoke, and fur. He pulled it off of his head, careful of the flames as he saw Heinkel sitting back down on one of the logs nearby— cheeks dusted with pink.

Kimblee blinked, mouth forming in a small and soundless 'oh' before he turned back to the fire, pulling the coat on and around him. A part of him was pleased. Very pleased.

Heinkel wasn't bad on the eyes, and while gruff, he was decently kind and respectful. He wasn't as loud and exuberant as Darius was, and it was almost endearing how Heinkel seemed to be always looking out for him.

Heinkel was, most likely, someone who loved wholeheartedly and deeply. Kimblee, though, felt an uncharacteristic spark of nervousness.

For him, love was a… foreign concept at best. He knew of it, and knew that it was used in many ways— familial, he knew, because Lukas had ruffled his hair and told him that he was his son even if Waller was his father by blood.

But he… didn't know romantic love.

He knew euphoria, he knew pleasure. He knew what it was like _to_ love material objects, sounds, concepts, and ideas _._ But never what it was like nor how to love _someone—_ or even what it was like to be _loved_ to the point where one would give their life for them, not out of obligation but because they _wanted_ to.

Mustang had told him that he didn't know love, that he had never loved, during the Ishval War. Kimblee had disagreed— he knew how to love physically, and how to love concepts, feelings, and things that weren't people. He could love those things. But a romantic love for people was something different.

The slum of Araunya had started to crush the notion of love from him the moment he came into life, and his father beat the rest of it out of him. When the concept of love began to crawl back into his chest, it was stomped out and trampled on by anyone who could because they _knew_. Soldiers from upper-class backgrounds never wanted the Soldiers from the Slums to last long.

Those born from the cities, born in real towns, born with food and money and people who _cared_ about them— they made sure that the face of the Military was pristine.

Even with the rank of Major, with the State Alchemist Watch in his pocket, it was a desperate fight to stay above.

So Kimblee didn't know _love_.

And to be the focus of _love_ scared him. Just a bit.

He contemplated this silently as he stood, gazing at the fire.

If he did accept, would Heinkel even be able to handle the worst of him? He had seen just a fraction of what he was like when he was detached and acting in Briggs. If Kimblee slipped back into how he was in Ishval—

If he became what he was in Araunya, just trying to survive—

He scowled.

No, he would not become like that again. He had made a vow to himself— and he never broke his vows.

He would never return to how he was in Araunya. Not fully.

Sighing, he pulled the coat tighter around himself, looking up when the rest of the group rejoined him and Heinkel by the fire. He had a number of things to think about.

.:.:.:.:.

Even though his shirt and jacket had been dried, thanks to Edward, Kimblee found himself still wrapped up in Heinkel's coat as the five of them sat around the fire, talking about a little bit of everything.

Greed apparently pulled some story from Lin about how Edward had to foot a massive food bill for him at a hotel, and Darius, Edward, and Heinkel exchanged military stories. Kimblee was more than happy to just sit back and listen, watching the fire and leaning forwards to stoke it every so often.

He didn't exactly have many happy stories to go off of in the same way that they did. 

"— so then, Heinkel goes, 'Sir, I have no idea what you're talking about' right to the man's face," Darius was saying, Heinkel nodding along with a slight grin.

"Wait, wait, wait," Greed cut in, "While everything was still on fire?"

"Yep," Heinkel said, leaning back a bit as the Homunculus cackled. "Pretty sure that the guy started foaming at the mouth."

"Pretty sure that's called passing out, Lion King," Edward interjected, "But that's nothing! So there was this weird priest—"

Kimblee zoned back out at that, yawning and leaning back.

They were a few miles from Resembool by now. About two more days of walking should do the trick, if they kept a fast pace and their heads low. Winry would, hopefully, be there, if only to help Fullmetal with his automail— and hopefully Alphonse, Zampano, and Jerso were with her. The more the merrier.

A kick to his leg made him look over to Greed with an unimpressed look.

"You got any stories that aren't messed up, Crimson-Bitch?"

Kimblee made a slight face.

"I would like to request a new nickname," he said flatly before he sighed. "And no. I don't have many exciting stories, I'm afraid. Not ones that have to do with military escapades, at least."

"What about that one that Ezra was talking about?" Edward piped up. "The one where she stabbed you?"

"You got stabbed, Crimson-Bitch?" Greed was listening now, sitting up fully with a wide grin.

"You make it sound like I've just never been stabbed before," Kimblee sighed before he sat up fully. "And you're going to have to be specific, Fullmetal, Ezra's stabbed me plenty of times before."

"Sounds rough," Darius noted and Kimblee waved it off.

"It's her favorite way to greet me, and is reletively tame compared to the other greetings from where we were both born," he told them, waving it off. 

"I'd hate to know the others then," Heinkel mused and Kimblee chuckled.

"Don't worry, you won't be going anywhere near Araunya if anyone can help it," he said eyes gaining an almost dangerous glint in the light of the fire. "If you thought Briggs was rough, one of my first memories was watching someone get their hands cut off for stealing from another. Araunya isn't monitored by the Military, or anything really."

"A dog eats dog kind of world," Greed said, raising a brow. "My kind of place."

"If you want to go there on your own time and deal with that place, be my guest, I'm pretty sure I'd get more than the Ezra patented greeting if I showed my face there now," He drawled in return, leaning back on his hands. Edward tilted his head.

"Why's that?"

"Friends of Waller— my father— would kill me, friends of those friends would join in, old man Damian's first reaction to seeing almost anyone has always been to pull his gun on them, so I'd rather not deal with that. If Ezra's brother is still alive, he'd gut me alive for not letting it slip where she had run off to, same for Mia's father…" he said, ticking them off on his fingers and Edward made a disgruntled noise.

"That's normal for a slum?"

"No, Fullmetal," he said with a sigh, lowering his hands back into his lap. "Just the worst of us out there. Araunya, Pellena, Ruslo, and Vanlow are some of the rougher ones that have names— though Araunya is the largest and Pellena had been shaping up a bit right before I enlisted as a State Alchemist, I don't know if it managed to stay on that path or not. Vanlow and Ruslo, if they're lucky, are gone now."

Edward scrunched his face up, thinking. "If… _when_ we win this, you should tell whoever's next in line for boss," he decided.

"We'll see," was all he said back. "I think we should be more worried on what is to come first."

And like that, the blonde shrugged before launching into the next story. Kimblee ignored the blue-eyed gaze on his back as he stoked the fire again.

.:.:.:.:.

The leaves from the previous autumn crunched underfoot as he walked slowly through the woods.

Sometime during the storytelling, Edward had dozed off, leaving the four adults talking among each other, but after an hour of that, Kimblee had decided that he was going to go for a walk and set off in a random direction.

There were certainly a number of things that he had to think through in regards of the Promised Day. Of the homunculi, only one of the seven was dead— Lust.

Sloth was either up in the north still or had been pulled back to Central, Greed was with them, but that still left Wrath, Envy, Gluttony, and Pride unaccounted for.

Well, not Wrath. Wrath was probably still pretending to be Bradley up in Central.

He wondered how strong of a blast would be needed to kill him in one shot— or if it was even possible.

Still, that meant Envy, Gluttony, and Pride were still around. He hadn't had the _luxury_ of meeting Pride, and he had only seen a bit of Sloth for the first time at Briggs. Gluttony… he could recall, but not fondly— evidently, his _best_ ties to the Homunculi were through Envy's and Wrath's faces.

In other words, not pleasant.

They also needed a failsafe in case just straight up stopping the Father didn't work— if the transmutation circle was activated, then that was it for Amestris.

Kimblee let out a sigh, gazing up at the sky with a frown, standing still as he did so.

There were also personal things he had to think about.

He knew that he was technically only out of prison on a technicality, there would probably be some issues when this was all said and done— should he survive this at all. And he highly doubted that he would, because Envy was a petty bitch and would certainly try and enact revenge on him.

He had wanted to travel when he was a child, and being a paper pusher was hardly ideal— he was next to useless when it came to paperwork despite being part of the Logistics branch when he first joined up as an Alchemist. Perhaps he could request to act as an ambassador instead of working a desk job? That is, if he wasn't sent back to prison instantly.

Or executed.

That was also an option.

Under Bradley, the War Crimes in Ishval were… overlooked. Whoever took hold of power next most likely wouldn't. And since Kimblee had the _wonderful_ add on of a prison sentence for blowing up his superiors, he had quite an unlikely chance of avoiding execution if that was what the new head had in mind— though would they purge all that State Alchemists and everyone who took part in the War or would he simply be used as a scapegoat? 

Because if so, it would be a damn shame on all fronts.

He was drawn back from his thoughts as footsteps sounded. Instantly on alert, he drew his hands out from the pockets of Heinkel's oversized coat. He turned slowly, posed to clap them only to stop when he saw who it was.

"Don't blow me up for sneaking up on you," Heinkel said with a slight chuckle as he walked over, arms raised. Kimblee dropped his hands back to his side.

"Did something happen?" he asked, raising a brow. Heinkel shook his head.

"Nah, Greed and Darius are talkin' about something or another and I wanted to see what was taking you so long to come back," he said simply. Kimblee snorted.

"What, am I not allowed to get lost in the woods?" he joked lightly.

Hm. It was weird to be able to speak freely and joke around the way that he had been doing so over the past few months. Even in Kanama, he had been quite guarded in regards to how he spoke.

Heinkel laughed lightly, a deep rumbling laugh that made Kimblee's breath catch suddenly.

"No, you can," the blonde said, "Just take me with you, I'd rather be lost in the woods than stuck with Greed forever."

He snorted.

Well, wasn't that the truth.

Kimblee held a natural distaste for Homunculi, despite his curiosity and respect for them for allowing him to do what he wanted. This extended to Greed despite his allegiance to them— though his distaste was more or less because of the fact that his more… vulgar comments grated on his nerves. He had no wish to be Greed's 'bitch', as the Homunculus kept asking.

"Greed is a piece of work," he said flatly and Heinkel laughed again. Kimblee hummed, gazing back up at the sky.

"Oh, yes," he said suddenly, "Thank you for lending me your coat."

"Not a problem," Heinkel said, almost too quickly. Kimblee raised a brow but didn't comment on it as they lapsed into silence.

Several moments passed before either of them decided to speak again.

"Kimb—"

"If you're going to ask and date me, at least use my first name, Heinkel Potez," Kimblee hummed, catching the blonde off-guard. He turned, gazing up at the blonde who was sputtering and flushing. Kimblee rolled his eyes but remained amused.

"Please, Heinkel, I'm joking," he said easily, turning back towards the sky. "Call me what you want. Almost no one remembers me by name— ah, but don't follow Greed's nicknaming pattern, please."

Heinkel let out a huff of air, glancing away and crossing his arms.

"Solf, then…"

It was soft, but he heard it, turning to the blonde, eyes slightly wide. He hadn't actually been expecting him to do _that_ despite him joking so.

Heinkel cleared his throat, eyes flickering around and not meeting his.

Shit, that was cute.

"I—"

"Oh my god," Kimblee sighed, finally giving in to the torrent of emotions he had been suppressing since earlier. He reached up, grabbing him by the front of his shirt and pulling him down. Their lips crashed together and a surprised noise left Heinkel's throat.

When they pulled away from each other, both flushed and panting, there was a bright glint in Heinkel's eyes.

"This is quite literally the worst time to bring this up," He rumbled, "But is that a yes?"

"Shut up and kiss me again, soldier," Kimblee growled back and Heinkel laughed, wrapping an arm around his waist and pulling him in close.

"Yes, _sir."_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, a shorter chapter. this was just fluff and filler. 
> 
> “I have never written romance” I continue to claim. “but penguin. what about Breath of the Void?” you all ask. “I still can't write it,” I say back. At least this time I have the excuse of Kimblee’s a goddamn mess. 
> 
> Further notes:
> 
> I was going to have Kimblee teach Ed how to fish, but this is what happened instead.
> 
> Edward is, in fact, the Hero of the People, he’d undeniably care about the shitty conditions and life that the rougher slums go through. Once again, this is all headcanon, since there's not much information on the surrounding slums that I can find in the canon FMA verse.
> 
> Also sue me but I'm a sucker for the Taller Char/Smaller Char ships. It's cute. Kimblee is about the same height as Roy from what I can tell (but we also don't get them side by side). According to the Bones height chart, Heinkel is about 200 cm (same as Zampano) and Darius is about the same height as Armstrong. There was no reason to tell you all this, I just thought it was fun.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I meant to post this yesterday, but I had an extremely bad time the past two days because I had to spend time with my father, who left my family, his wife, and his side of the family due to America's Thanksgiving and the family's traditional after day breakfast. So I didn't get to editing until pretty late last night when I stopped feeling emotionally drained. I was watching the AOC stream which made me feel better. I hope you folks in America had a good thanksgiving day, though.

Resembool was cute and quaint, even when the group had traveled through the night to get to the Rockbell family house.

As of now, they had been hiding out in the basement for several days— only going upstairs in the early hours of the morning to make coffee (Kimblee) or simple meals during the day (also Kimblee, but Edward helped).

Edward usually vanished to the upper floor to stake a lookout, but the rest of them remained in the basement.

The four of them had gotten proficient in card games as of late, seemed, as the only thing to keep them from causing trouble happened to be a deck of cards.

And by 'them' Heinkel meant Darius and Greed. Heinkel was perfectly content sitting around if he needed to. Because if he was still and _not_ engaging in activity that required a lot of movement, he was more likely to get Kimblee either in his lap or just pressed against him.

Kimblee was like a cat, which he found hilarious because _he_ was quite literally a lion. The Alchemist was prickly and peculiar, with actions that few could understand on the surface. He didn't like to be touched by strangers but was fine with certain contact from others— Heinkel had seen how he had recoiled when they were traveling through a small town and an older woman pat his arm.

He had his own set of quirks, rules, and mentality— one that was highly complex and flipped around at random depending on how he was feeling, but his core values stayed firm and solid. Kimblee was a mystery, but Heinkel didn't mind taking time to figure him out the best he could in the time they had together.

But at the current moment, Heinkel found himself playing cards with Greed and Darius while Kimblee dozed against his back. Despite how he held himself at Briggs and while they were on the run, it was painfully obvious that the man wasn't used to being up and about so much.

Even if it had been close to six months.

Prison, Heinkel knew, wasn't a walk in the park and it didn't help that Kimblee wasn't one to eat a lot at all. He had known that the man was thin, the five of them had been together for a few months— he, Darius, Edward, and Kimblee for even longer— after all. He had seen the man with his shirt off more than once, but it didn't seem as if he gained or lost weight.

And he understood why Kimblee had admitted to having dysphoric moments— by god he was jarringly thin.

What muscle he had from before prison was practically gone, and the Chimera could easily count each rib. His stomach was concave and Kimblee admitted that he wasn't _used_ to seeing himself as such, though he had always been pretty wrecked in terms of healthy body mass. He had scars decorating his body from battle and, Heinkel had realized with a pang, from his childhood— and not how children would get scars from running around and playing outside.

Small nicks from flying shrapnel from the war in Ishval had been pointed out to him, dotting his sides, and some against his back were scattered between the ones gained from the fall in Briggs and between bruises and bites from him— Kimblee had complained lightly about how the bite mark on his shoulder was bound to scar, Heinkel had told him that his teeth weren't _that_ sharp.

(They were, they would later find out. The mark did end up scarring.)

There was the jagged, star-like pair of scars on his front and back from where Scar had almost fatally wounded him— it was looking a lot better, though the scar tissue had an added layer of a second scar from Ezra's stitches.

The auburn-haired doctor had stabbed Kimblee as a greeting when they first arrived at her clinic, but when her wife had taken Kimblee out of the room, Ezra had admitted that she knew the wound hadn't "fucking healed correctly and he's an idiot fer tryin' to go out and play soldier like that. Lord above, that moron".

(Heinkel wasn't even aware of how she knew and when Darius asked she just grimaced and told him that it, sadly, came with the territory of knowing a Kimblee. They had known each other for a long time, she could tell if he had injuries that were correctly healed or hastily patched. She had been the one to patch him up when they had been kids before she had left Araunya.)

There was a jagged slash from a broken bottle going from his left shoulder and stopping right before it made it to his spine and a burn that looked too close to a cigarette for Heinkel's liking.

While the bruises were gone, Heinkel noticed that Kimblee rubbed his wrists a lot, ran his hands lightly over the scars there too. Kimblee had explained that the pillory had been too tight the first few months he was in prison. It rubbed his wrists raw and bloody and the Prison didn't give a fuck on what happened to 'minor injuries'.

The Alchemist rolled his wrists out a lot, stretched them and his hands out until Heinkel was sure that they would pop. Kimblee had grimly stated that he was enjoying the freedom of moving them and not having the weight of the pillory on his wrists while he could.

Prison wasn't easy, but Kimblee had certainly resigned to the fact that if they survived he'd be sent back. Or executed.

(If not, he had said that he wanted to retire from the military. Travel for a while, maybe.)

Heinkel sighed as he remembered that conversation, though he kept an eye on Darius as the Gorilla Chimera's hand hovered between the two cards in his hand. He froze suddenly, looking up.

A soft noise came from above- the click of a lock being opened.

Darius opened his mouth to say something but Heinkel held a hand up, silencing him and Greed as he tilted his head. The door opened and two— no three— sets of footsteps sounded above them. Kimblee shifted against his back, sitting up and listening as well.

"Someone's here," Kimblee murmured and Heinkel nodded, slowly standing. Darius followed suit, then Kimblee, rolling his shoulders and tensing a bit— an action that Heinkel was getting used to reading as the other man pushed the more crystal-like one of the two Philosopher's Stones between his teeth.

Greed stayed where he was sitting, frowning but shrugging and setting his cards down. He stood a moment later but didn't seem bothered at all.

They were quiet as they moved, Heinkel and Darius ahead of Kimblee and Greed. They were almost to the stairs before a scream sounded— one that sounded a lot like Winry.

He glanced to Darius, who nodded, and in an instant, both of them had their guns drawn and all four of them were moving up the stairs. The other two sets of footsteps rushed across the floor and up the stairs to the second floor before they got to the main level. From the corners of his eyes, Heinkel caught Kimblee's hands moving.

Two fingers, direction towards him and Darius, the Amestrian hand sign for 'stairs', then the sign for "cover this area".

Heinkel easily slipped into the military's use of hand signals, giving the signal for 'understood' as Darius nodded. The two of them split off from Kimblee and Greed and crept up the stairs quickly.

When they reached the second floor, the two of them saw two more men pointing their guns into one of the rooms at the top of the stairs— the one Edward had said he would be in.

Heinkel instantly leveled his gun to the back of one of their heads, Darius covered the other, the two of them working seamlessly together.

"Drop your guns!" he barked.

"You okay kid?" Heinkel called in, gazing over the tops of their heads to see Edward startled and flustered, along with Winry.

Then there was barking and more footsteps before Darius leaped back, yelping as a dog with an automail leg bit his backside.

Greed suddenly appeared from the stairs, detaching the dog with an unimpressed look as it continued to bark and snarl.

"What the hell is goin' on up here?" the Homunculus asked and Heinkel had to agree as both parties faced off, though Darius looked far worse off now that his ass had been bit by a dog.

"Lin?" He heard Winry ask as he kept his gaze on the man in front of him— whose eyes widened suddenly.

"Wait, I know you two! You're Kimblee's men!"

Well. Yes, but also no.

Kimblee had treated him and Darius as strange equals out of sight since the beginning, though he supposed the little act and show up at Briggs would make it seem like otherwise.

Darius glowered. "I know you two, you're from Briggs," he shot back and the other man adjusted his grip on his gun.

"You've been following us this whole time?" he growled as the dog barked again in Greed's hands, starting to squirm and Greed remained unimpressed.

"Easy! Easy!" Heinkel attempted. "Just lower your guns!"

"No, _you_ put _your_ gun down!"

Darius bristled. "No, _you_ put _yours_ down _first!"_

And now the dog was barking again. Heinkel growled lowly in his throat, refusing to back down out of risk of getting shot as the arguing persisted between Darius and the two others.

"Can someone shut that damn dog up!" Heinkel snapped, but there turned out to be no real reason to— as they were all promptly kicked out of what was apparently Winry's bedroom.

Landing in an ungraceful heap at the top of the stairs, Heinkel's ears picked up the sound of yet another unknown set of footsteps coming up the stairs, with Kimblee's trailing after theirs.

A small old woman appeared in their sights first when they all untangled themselves from one another, Heinkel rubbing the back of his neck.

"What's all this now?" the old woman asked, scowling.

"Well, three of them would be the ones I told you about, Ms. Rockbell. Though I haven't the faintest idea where the other two came from... nor the dog, for that matter," Kimblee hummed as he walked up behind her, hands in his pockets. Next to him, the Briggs soldier in disguise bristled.

"Kimblee," he hissed, hand already on his gun and pointing it at him. Before he knew it, Heinkel's gun was pressed against the man's temple and Darius' was at his neck. The old woman raised a brow, glancing between Kimblee and Heinkel before giving the soldier a pointed stare.

"Best ease up on that tone of yours, son," she said curtly. "There seems to be another story going on behind the scenes."

"Yeah, don't shoot the Crimson-bitch, I need him," Greed said flatly. Kimblee frowned at that and Heinkel bit his lip to stop the smile threatening to appear.

God, that frown was more like a pout and it was _cute._

"I told you to stop calling me that," Kimblee sighed, shaking his head. Greed smirked.

"How about lotus-bitch then?"

"That's just as bad, stop before I blow you sky-high."

The casual bickering made both Briggs soldiers' jaws drop as they watched. Their guns were still trained on Kimblee as he walked around them to stand by Heinkel and Greed. The soldier with the paperboy's hat snapped his shut before opening his mouth to say something, only to get cut off as the old woman pushed past them, seeing Winry.

"Winry?"

The blonde girl perked. "Grandma!" she said and the woman let out a breath of relief.

"Thank goodness you're alright."

The girl looked guilty at that. "Yes…" she said softly. "Sorry if I worried you."

The old woman, Winry's grandmother— Pianko, if he remembered correctly— turned her gaze towards them and Heinkel spared a glance to Kimblee. The man had taken the time to slip a set of black gloves back on, effectively stating that he wasn't a threat at that moment. The time between taking one of his gloves off would take longer than to put a bullet through his head, and Heinkel knew that Kimblee knew that. Donning gloves to keep his arrays separated was a sign of truce in a sense of the term as he walked over to stand by him, though based on the way his jaw was set, he still had the stone between his teeth should he need to use it.

His attention snapped back as Greed pushed his way in front of him and Darius, Winry looking warily at them.

"I'm Greed, nice to meet',cha."

.:.:.:.:.

And so they all convened back in the basement, Kimblee sitting on Heinkel's lap when the Chimera tugged him over after sitting on a crate. The Lion seemed to have noticed his energy lagging.

It was quite easy to put up a front of being in perfect health, despite everything that had happened to him. The energy to stay composed and never show tiredness thus far had been fueled by one parts anticipation to see what his next orders were (so he could plan around them) and one parts paranoia as he was in the heart of Briggs surrounded by a number of others who wanted him dead no matter if he had been acting or not. Along with adrenaline and determination to keep moving and keep Edward alive once they left brigs.

It was only once they were stationary at the Rockbell's home did he realize the true extent of how ragged he was being run.

Luckily, Heinkel had noticed.

And it really was taking a lot of his effort to just stay awake at the moment, barely listening to them as Greed, Edward, Darius, and Heinkel explained the situation. Well, Heinkel was only chiming in every so often, he seemed to be having more fun staring him down as he jerked in and out of sleep.

And running his fingers through his hair. Kimblee had learned that Heinkel liked his hair, so he didn't mind… and it was lulling him to sleep—

He jerked back awake as Edward finished up explaining everything to his Mechanic and childhood friend.

"That doesn't explain why, um, Mister Kimblee's here," Winry was saying, giving him a nervous look. He yawned, stretching the best he could while also staying on Heinkel's lap as Greed cackled.

"He's here because he's the lion's bitch."

"How rude," he huffed, rolling his eyes before he gave Winry a slight smile. "Ignoring the Vulgar Homunculus, I was never _against_ you, to begin with, but I couldn't just defect the moment I was let out of Prison. I needed to test Briggs and Fullmetal before I decided anything. Briggs passed the moment I arrived, Armstrong answers to no one but herself, and the Northern Dogs fall in line with their leader. Fullmetal's resolve is strong— I admire that. People that stick to their policies, their beliefs, those are the people I follow— and the ones that I feel will lead me on the most interesting path. Among other things."

Winry didn't look too convinced but nodded nonetheless. Edward trusted him to a point and for her, Kimblee assumed, that was enough for her.

"Enough about all that crap," Greed groaned, standing up and jerking his thumb at Edward. "His automail needs to get tuned up, mind gettin' that done?"

Winry looked half worried and half pissed at getting ordered around by the Homunculus and Kimblee settled back again. Heinkel rested his arms around his waist.

The tune-ups for his automail would take a bit, he could afford to take another nap.

.:.:.:.:.

He had been pleased to learn that Edward's father was in Kanama.

Well, more like he had been pleased to be going to Kanama.

And luckily for them, Getting to Kanama hadn't been too bad. While Edward had wanted to lead the search for his father through Kanama, Kimblee had ended up taking lead— it wasn't exactly his fault that a couple of people recognized him, though it was certainly his fault for making the other four confused when Valko from the textile shop and the elder Natalia both called him by his middle name, 'Josiah'.

In Kanama, he had wanted so desperately to be someone other than "Waller's son, Solf", so his middle name had become what they had called him when he was younger. As he grew older and before he joined the Military as a State Alchemist, he had been Josiah to the older generation, and a mix of Josiah and Solf to the younger. He didn't mind, and he found Edward's confused face amusing.

Even more so when he felt the last of claws that his Araunya-born nature had imbedded into him since Ishval slip and let go of him. In Kanama, he was a different man, one who could live without blood on his hands from birth.

He ruffled Edward's hair, much to his confusion, and walked with a lighter step.

Kanama was _home_.

And then Edward found his father. And then punched him as a greeting.

Certainly tamer than Ezra's knife-to-the-gut greeting.

After being introduced to Von Hohenheim, they had moved to a secluded place and the entire story then came to light. Kimblee, himself, didn't know much more than the rest of them did but conformed some parts that were brought up about the transmutation circle— the Homunculi never did tell him much else besides his orders, though.

A good job on that part, he reasoned, because if they had told him of Maes Hughes' death…

Well, there wasn't much that they could have done, nor that he could have. By the time that Envy had gotten him out of prison, he had already turned sides— but maybe he wouldn't have been so covert about it. Maybe he would have just straight up abandoned the hunt for Scar, choosing instead to head to Briggs and lay everything out for Armstrong.

Kimblee didn't know.

What he did know was that he had always liked Hughes, even if they didn't get along particularly well at first. He was the only one who roughly attempted to figure out what was going on in his head, and Kimblee respected that attempt. He never scorned him for jumping ranks by being an Alchemist rather than going through the Academy (as if Kimblee had enough money for the Academy) and had always been the first to greet him at the end of a day out on the field— aside from McDougal, Hughes was probably his only 'friendly' connection in Ishval.

So in short, he had to step away for a few moments when they went over all of the Homunculi and the individual deaths that they knew of related to them. Among them being Maes Hughes.

It had to have been Envy who killed Hughes. The married man was too smart, too sharp, and Envy was the only one who could possibly catch him off guard like that.

And he so _desperately_ wanted to kill Envy because of it, he found. To the point where the claws of insanity began to dig into his being.

When he returned, he returned with his hands smoking and eyes more than a bit feral, but nothing more.

The conversation went well for the most part aside from that— Hohenheim was apparently a Philosopher's Stone, which was interesting— and then Edward made the man cry, which had resulted in a hasty retreat on the blonde's part. Kimblee had followed the boy at a more leisurely pace, waving Heinkel and Darius off when they told him they were going to go get food with Edward.

Heinkel had given him a worried look, but he knew better than anything how Kimblee's eating habits were. He left it as it was, telling him where they would be, then the two parted ways.

Kimblee knew that the general store would still be open this late, especially since the word of travelers had gotten around— and more likely than not, Valko had blabbed on him to Lukas.

Making his way through the streets, he hummed softly to himself, stopping for a dog and a few teens to run by and waving back to a mother who was holding a sleeping baby. Kanama was as lively as ever, and it was nice.

If not a bit grim.

None of them outwardly showed that they knew what was to happen, and he doubted that they knew at all.

Nonetheless, Kanama was still Kanama, just like he remembered, if not a bit bigger.

When he reached the old General store, he knocked on the door frame before he stepped in, glancing around. It was empty of people, but he had to smile just slightly.

Same old junk and necessities on the same old dusty shelves it seemed.

There was some noise from the back, making him look over from where he had started to inspect the shelves. Canned goods from Central— overpriced and imported in from elsewhere— and small trinkets for children were on the set he was currently at. From the back room came a tired-looking, older man with dark, graying hair and just as dark eyes.

A look of recognition sparked in the man's eyes. "Josiah Kimblee," the man chuckled, walking out from behind the counter. "It's been _years,_ boy!"

Kimblee smiled slightly, bowing a bit. "Mister Lukas," he greeted. "It certainly has been a while."

"Valko and Nat told me you were in the area, to think that you would come to find me before I went to find you," Lukas said, slapping his arm lightly. Kimblee chuckled a bit.

"I wouldn't dare think of making you walk all the way around the community just looking for me," he said and the man laughed again.

His eyes grew sad when he stopped. "We heard you were in prison, Josiah, but since Waller was dead and none of us were related to you, it was only rumors that we were able to catch…"

Kimblee nodded slowly, sighing. "I was," he said softly. "The war in Ishval changed people— changes them still. People from Araunya should never be given the means to destroy, I knew that, and still… they handed me the means to do it."

He gazed down at his hands. "The mind is a complex thing, Lukas," He looked up at the man. "You knew from the start."

"I suspected," the man said calmly. "No one who was normal would be able to have such changes of that magnitude. It was your photographic memory that tripped me up, but with how much Waller fuck you up, I suspected that if you didn't have a multiple personality disorder when you first showed up in Kanama, you'd develop it later."

"The one I lovingly call Araunya had full control in Ishval. Drunk off the power that was handed over to me," Kimblee breathed, "Hung on tightly until recently."

Lukas was quiet for a moment. "Do you regret it?"

"I'm not going to say I regret it, that would be an insult to the people who died at my hand. Besides, I'm the son of Waller Kimblee, I know what they've about us— we've always been fucked in the head," he told him calmly, hands clasped behind his back.

Lukas 'hmm'd but nodded. "Then, what brings you 'round these parts, then Josiah?"

He glanced to the door. "Taking down Central and the Monsters within. One of the people who has also been working on a way to do the same thing is here— Hohenheim, blonde hair, glasses. His son is one of the ones I'm traveling with."

Lukas nodded again. "The man helped out around here some, yes," he said before shrugging. "Hopefully, his son will be just as so."

Kimblee snorted, chuckling softly. "Well, Edward is something, that's for sure," he said. Lukas stretched before clapping a hand on his shoulder.

"You know where the kid is?"

"He should be down at Oliver and Kamilla's stand," he said, recalling the direction they had wandered off to. "Why?"

This time he got a punch to the arm. "Introduce me to your new friends, brat."

"No need to be rude," he huffed in return, rubbing his arm but, nodding nonetheless and leading the shop owner outside.

The two of them talked a bit as they walked, but Kimblee was more interested in looking around as Lukas pointed out new things or things that had yet to be fixed up since the _last_ time he was here, which had been nearly twelve years ago.

Apparently, Lamont still hadn't gotten that broken window of his fixed. But he was married now, which was good.

Kimblee nodded as Lukas explained something about how Pellena's citizens were slowly trickling over to Kanama— apparently the Slum was not doing much better, despite what they had all hoped— when he saw a flash of blonde.

And then he groaned.

"Lukas, please tell me that Annie's at least toned down her obvious hate for me?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope no one got yeeted for American Black Friday. And Oh wow, more notes? I can't believe it. I accidentally fell in love with my own AU which is kinda rare, so yeah. I want my thoughts to be explained.
> 
> Further notes:
> 
> Abusive Dad Is Abusive. I created James Waller Kimblee, I'm allowed to hate him.
> 
> Anyways, I brought up the fact that Kimblee wasn't going to be deaf in this series already, but I highly doubt that he didn't lose his hearing pre-philosopher's stone. Kimblee knows Amestrian Sign Language and he knows the Military Hand signals by heart.
> 
> Kimblee is a cat and I will fight you on this. But also super touch-starved because a) canonical FMA, six years without contact and b) my canon, years of Shitty Abusive Dad + Military + Prison with very little positive contact mixed in (though he did have Good people in his life like Lukas, but that's still 12 years with military and prison with no contact)
> 
> Valko and Natalia will be explained later. Regarding Kimblee's lighter attitude, I mean, he's home. he's in a place that's not riddled with political tension, or where he's reminded of things that make him need to hide behind sociopathy. Basically, we're seeing another personality surface.
> 
> I'm not 100% sure how DID/MPD would work with someone who has a photographic/Eidetic memory. From what I know, some people suffer from memory loss? If anyone knows more/has DID or MPD, feel free to correct me. Just in this canon, the reason why Kimblee can keep both his Araunya and Kanama personalities and their respective memories is because of his insane memory.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Genshin Impact is taking over my life with Jujitsu Kaisen. Nanami is my favorite and I'm 100% sure he and Kimblee would not get along and probably kill each other.

The shopkeeper blinked, following his line of sight as they neared the Cuto family food-stand. A blonde-haired woman dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and a faded skirt was talking to Heinkel, Darius, and Edward— and Greed, but Greed seemed to be staring off into space.

"I wouldn't count on it. That's the Kornet family for you, they've hated your guts since the moment you walked into Kanama," Lukas sighed as they neared the stand. Oliver looked half ready to strangle the young woman as he cleaned a glass and the trio simply looked confused.

"— and I'm telling you, that Josiah bastard is bad news, kid!" Annie was huffing, arms crossed. Edward only seemed to be half-listening as he slurped down a bowl of noodles.

("Half done, still slightly hard, lukewarm, that's all you get, 'cause that's all we got," happened to be Oliver's favorite thing to say to customers. Because that was all they really had in terms of noodles.)

Neither of the Chimeras seemed particularly inclined to listen to the woman, though they had looks of confusion as they ate their own meals, Greed still not paying attention at all. Heinkel perked up just slightly, seeing Kimblee walk over. Kimblee glanced at Annie, then to Lukas, and shrugged as the blonde continued her tirade.

"You should just leave him somewhere else and continue with whatever you're— AH!" Annie was cut off when Lukas smacked her on the back of her head.

"Still mouthing off against Waller's boy, eh? Best shut your mouth, Kornet, kid's done nothing to you except exist and you know that Natalia and I ain't gonna accept that behavior here."

Annie scowled. She was about eight years younger than Kimblee was, and she had hated him since he first stepped foot in Kanama. Unfortunately, there had been a large number of people who did back then too, Araunya was notorious for being the worst of the slums on this side of Central. A child wandering in from Araunya meant trouble, and the Kornet family knew that.

Her father had done all he could to chase him out of town when he was still alive but to no avail.

"You're not in charge here, Lukas! No one is since these other people," she made a wide gesture. "Keep coming into Kanama! We can't support _everyone!"_

"Sure we can," Kimblee said, "But not with your attitude."

Annie's eyes narrowed. "Aren't you supposed to be in jail _?"_

"Aren't you supposed to be bothering someone else? Go away."

Annie growled but stormed off. Kimblee rolled his eyes as Lukas shook his head, sighing.

"Sorry about that, lads," he said to Edward and the others, "She's always been like that to outsiders."

"Rude to a fault?" Edward grumbled. "Geez, she comes up and yells to us about some guy we don't even know!"

Lukas raised a brow. "Oh, I don't know about that," he said. "People go by all sorts of names when they're down here."

Edward scowled at him but looked curious. Lukas glanced between them before he chuckled softly to himself as Kimblee raised a brow.

"Aren't you supposed to be some sort of protege, Fullmetal?"

"What does that have to do with anything, firework-bastard?!"

Kimblee gave him a deadpanned look.

"What do you think the 'J' in my name means?"

"Jackass." "I was going to go for Jimblee."

Both Edward and Darius spoke up at the same time and Kimblee gave Lukas a long-suffering look, as if to say 'see what I have to put up with?' and the older man just let out a bark of laughter.

Heinkel chuckled a bit, setting his empty bowl down and moving over to them both.

"So, the 'J' stands for Josiah… didn't think you'd be the type for a middle name," he said. Kimblee shrugged.

"Waller's family had a superstition that if you have a middle name then you cant be cursed by witches or some shit," he said simply. "Solf Josiah Kimblee, James Waller Kimblee…"

He shrugged again before stumbling forwards a bit when Lukas slapped his back.

"I gotta get back ta my shop to close it up for the night, boy, be safe out there," He told him as Kimblee stood back up. "Overthrow a government or two on the way, but make sure you come back for Nat's birthday. All five of you boys, you hear?"

He raised his voice a bit, making sure that Darius, Greed, and Edward heard. Not that they did, they were bickering again.

Kimblee chuckled, bowing a bit. "Of course," he said before the man walked away. Heinkel wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

"Who was that?" he asked as they walked back to the others.

He hummed.

"Lukas Farncomb," he said, "Owner of the main general store here, former soldier, retired, no children, his wife died before I was born, never remarried. Took care of me when I suck away from home. I used to think that Kanama was the richest place in the world when I was a kid. I did some work here and there here to earn a bit of change. Haven't returned since I joined the military— it's good to see that not much had changed."

The Lion hummed, nodding. "You mentioned working here some before," he recalled. "Who was the other one?"

"The girl was Annie Kornet," He told him as Edward ran off to Valko's textile shop. "She and her family had always looked down on the people who came to Kanama from other slums. While Kanama has a loose government with a bit of military influence, the Farncombs and a few other families have more pull here. The Kornet family wasn't one, but they complained about it nonstop. In short, we never got along. She's tame compared to her father though, Orzel tried to chase me out of Kanama a lot before Valko and Lukas put him in his place."

Heinkel whistled lowly. "Sounds like a lot more trouble than it was worth on his end."

"You have no idea," Kimblee sighed. "The shop owner here is Oliver Cuto, he's Jonas' father, who I've mentioned before. and that shop that Edward just came out of belongs to a man named Valko Rep," he added before making a face when Edward came back with that garish red coat of his.

"I— wow," he said slowly. "That's… and here I thought we finally got you to dress like a normal person. I was going to give you lessons on how to tie a tie later, too."

"What!?" Edward snapped and Kimblee leaned back at the sheer volume. "It's better than that stupid hat of yours! Besides, what's wrong with my coat?!"

Darius made a strangled noise though Edward paid no mind to it.

"It's a travesty," Kimblee drawled, leaning against Heinkel's side. "What's with it with you and the color red?"

"It's a badass color!"

He hummed. "Well, I can't argue with you on that, but you couldn't have chosen something less…" he made a general hand gesture, amused when the boy groaned.

"Whatever, I'm headin' out."

The blonde turned, starting to leave only to blink when they all followed him. His brows furrowed in confusion.

"You know that you don't really have to follow me anymore, right?"

"Well, someone has to make sure you don't do something stupid," Kimblee said, shrugging a bit. "Besides, you're heading to Central, I'm heading to Central. I didn't just sail under the same colors of the enemy during Briggs to back out now."

Edward made a face. "But what about Kanama—"

Kimblee turned to him, frowning. "Kanama will be fine. If we don't stop the Father in Central what will it matter? Kanama is already part of the circle."

"And if Solf's going, then so am I," Heinkel added, Darius nodding.

"Heinkel's reasoning might be different, but both of us are still _technically_ under orders to work with him," he reasoned. Edward still looked skeptical as they walked past the shorter blonde.

"Don't you guys want to get your bodies back like the other Chimeras?"

The Gorilla Chimera shrugged. "Neither of us really care."

"Not really," Heinkel said at the same time, "It comes in handy anyway. We've got nowhere else to go, so might as well follow you. Not quite ready to settle down."

"Speaking of, as fun as it would be to settle back down in Kanama, if I settled down any time soon it'd either be back in Prison— or six feet under," Kimblee chimed in.

Greed cackled. "That's the spirit!" he crowed and Darius raised a brow.

"And what about you, Greed?" he questioned. The Homunculus shrugged a bit, glancing back at them.

"Why am I goin' back to Central?" he asked before he hummed, grinning. "That's a secret."

Edward made a confused noise but Kimblee was no longer paying attention to him, stopping dead in his tracks. Heinkel stopped as well, staring straight ahead.

So he wasn't the only one who found the situation off.

The said situation was Alphonse Elric coming out from the woods before them. Now Kimblee was observant to a fault, he would remember things even if he didn't want to. So the armor before him might have once been Alphonse Elric, but this was not the boy. Or at least, not the same one he had met in the North.

His eyes narrowed as the armor approached from the gloom. Edward peered out from behind Heinkel, perking up.

"AL!" he cried, rushing forwards. "Yes! We did it!"

"I'm glad to see you're alright brother," the armored figure said. "I thought you were Major Miles? Is his group doing alright?"

Now that's odd. Alphonse would have been more alert if he had seen him. He moved quickly but silently, slipping his gloves off in his pockets. Greed tensed next to him, hands clenching at his sides while the two brothers conversed.

A prickling sensation went up Kimblee's spine as Greed hunched over suddenly.

"ED!" he snapped and the blonde whipped his head over to them. "GET AWAY FROM HIM!"

Confusion was written on the teen's face as Greed continued.

"That's not— Urhg— It's— He's a—"

Kimblee pulled his hands from his pockets, clapping them together just as living shadow erupted into pointed spires out of Alphonse. Edward leaped back as Kimblee easily dropped into a battle-ready crouch, a shadow swiping over his head. Darius was less lucky, falling back with a grunt as Heinkel— alerted by Kimblee's own movements— shifted back to dodge and whipping his gun out at the same time.

"What the hell!?" the Gorilla Chimera cried as the shadows gathered back around Alphonse.

"So you're with them now, Greed?" Alphonse said— though it wasn't really him as the armor turned. His voice was metallic but quite different from it would have been had this been Alphonse. "And you're still waltzing around in human form?"

Greed grit his teeth as "Alphonse" stepped fully into the light.

"Your soul is _disgustingly weak!"_

With a cry, Alphonse's armored body contorted and Edward stumbled farther back.

"A-Al?" he questioned. "What is this? Are you turning on us?"

"Ghh— that's not Alphonse, That's 'Pride'," Greed grunted. "How did you know where we were?"

"There is no limit to your betrayals, Greed," 'Pride' sighed. "You are now just another obstacle for us."

The shadow's gaze turned towards Kimblee. "Crimson Lotus, I presume? To think that we had such high hopes for you too."

Edward gave the two of them a look. "You guys know this guy?"

Greed nodded at the same time he shook his head.

"He's my older brother, I guess," Greed said. Kimblee shrugged slightly at that.

"Then he's a Homunculus. I've only had the _pleasure_ of meeting with Wrath and Envy," Kimblee said dryly.

Edward whirled back around. "You bastard! You used Al as a disguise!"

Pride laughed, shadows swirling around and lifting the helmet. "This is no disguise," he taunted, showing the blood seal on the inside. "This _is_ your brother."

"Son of a—"

The helmet clattered back in place. "I'm here to eliminate Greed," the Eldest Homunculus told them. "And you, Fullmetal Alchemist, you will come with me."

His gaze slid over to where Kimblee was crouched. "And you too, Crimson Lotus, now that we know you're alive. You caused such trouble, you know, we had to carve the blood crest with Drachma on our own. We have another, special task that only a powerful alchemist can do for us."

"Somehow I don't think that invitation to go back with you is pleasant, so no thanks," he said flatly, standing slowly and cracking his neck. He held his hands out in front of him, glancing back to Heinkel and Darius behind him. "You two might want to get back."

Heinkel shifted, hesitant but moving back with Darius behind the three of them, Edward tossing his newly made coat to the side as Greed cracked his knuckles.

Pride sighed. "A pity," he said. "Envy and Wrath spoke highly of you. A shame that I'll have to kill you here!"

Shadows erupted from the ground and rushed towards the three of them. Edward leaped to one side, Kimblee ducking to the other. His eyes flickered towards Kanama, gritting his teeth as Edward landed, throwing up a barrier between him and Pride— only for it to get slashed to pieces. Kimblee slammed his hands to the ground, sending an explosion rippling through it and throwing Pride up into the air. He twisted out of the way of another volley of sharp shadows, eyes narrowed when Pride landed with the aid of the other dark tendrils.

"Blockades don't work with this one!" Greed shouted to Edward before he threw his head back to avoid getting pierced through the neck by another set of shadows. Kimblee clapped his hands together again, moving to send another explosion through the ground before his arm was jerked back, shadows wrapping around his arm and pulling, another wrapped around his ankle.

He was caught, it seemed, and Greed wasn't faring much better.

"I've got your friends," Pride taunted Edward, "What now? Will you listen to my demands if I take those slum-dwellers as well?"

Greed let out a slight laugh. "He got ya right in your weak spot—" he started but Kimblee cut him off with a laugh, head tossed back. Pride turned to him as he shifted his free hand in front of him.

"No wonder you're called Pride," he said, leaning his head forward again. He parted his lips, tongue sliding out and the hidden Philosopher's stone rolled off his tongue.

Red light crackled as soon as the stone hit his palm and his hand wrapped around it quickly. He thrust his fist in the direction of the slum, easily picturing and directing a small, ranged explosion right to where the central power-box was. Edward caught on fast, clapping his hands and slamming them on the ground to disrupt any light that wasn't connected to the power-lines. In an instant, the entire area was engulfed in darkness and Kimblee felt the shadow holding his arm and ankle vanish. He moved instantly, putting the Philosopher's stone back between his teeth and backing towards where he knew Darius and Heinkel were.

He back directly into one of them, and judging by how the hand instantly wrapped around his shoulders, pulling him close, it was Heinkel.

Then Greed crashed into them.

"What happened?" Heinkel asked softly. Greed's weight lifted off of his side.

"Heinkel, that you?" he asked, "And the Crimson Bitch."

"I'd like a new nickname," Kimblee said instinctively before he shifted. "From what I figured, Pride's darkness is generated from shadows, not Darkness in general. There needs to be light for him to see and extend. No light, no shadows."

"Mm, that's about right," Greed said. "Unfortunately, that means we're about as blind as he is. Were any of you guys watching his feet?"

"Yes," Heinkel said lowly, bending down so he was a bit more level with them. "Those tentacle-like shadows came out of them."

"Not that," Greed said. "He was standing by a big ass shadow. Somewhere in that, his real body is hiding."

"Main?" Oh, there was Darius. Kimblee had wondered where he had gone.

Heinkel shifted. "As in not the armor?" he asked. Greed grunted.

"Exactly, his container is somewhere else."

It clicked. Kimblee, reached up, tapping Heinkel and the blonde behind him nodded.

"I got it," he said lowly before shifting and possibly looking towards Greed. "Describe it for me."

Greed must have grinned because his tone lightened considerably. "You know the brat that's supposed to be the Füher's kid?"

" _Selim?"_ Darius asked, obviously incredulous at the statement.

Greed snapped his fingers. "That's the bitch."

Heinkel snorted, but gently let go of Kimblee. "Right, I'll deal with it then."

"Be safe," Kimblee said quickly and softly. Heinkel rumbled a laugh before fur brushed the back of his neck. A rough tongue swiped a stripe up his cheek before the familiar weight and heat of the Chimera behind him vanished into the forest. He wiped his face, huffing lightly but fondly at his antics.

A fist suddenly hit Kimblee in the arm and he staggered.

"Nice job with the fucking lights, Crimson," Greed said, "Lion King's gonna have ta watch out, or I might just make ya my bitch instead."

Kimblee clapped his hands and reached out, sending a small explosion through Greed and sending him flying back. "Take that as my formal decline, Greed," he said flatly, standing still otherwise. He didn't trust himself to not get caught on a root or a stone and fall on his face.

Instead, he listened.

One would think that being an explosions master, he would have gone at least partially deaf, but a Philosopher's stone did a great many things for healing his ears. Before the war, he had keen hearing— one had to be to be able to dodge bottles flying from behind them, and Waller liked his drink.

He frowned suddenly. There was a disturbance. Strange, uneven, and off footing.

He reached out suddenly, grabbing Greed and who he hoped was Edward before dragging them down as Darius ducked. A sudden burst of bloodlust alerted him just in time of the attack in the dark.

A heavy weight leaped over them and slammed into the tree. Darius grabbed Kimblee around the waist, pulling him— and the two others— to the side away from it as the tree fell.

Kimblee let go of the two when Darius let go of him, shifting into a battle-ready stance.

' _A second homunculus… something evil comes this way.'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So someone brought to my attention that ASPD is a more likely scenario for Kimblee and I looked into it more and wholeheartedly agree. That said, while it is unlikely for ASPD and DID to both be present in a person, it is possible. Kimblee is going to be one of these, at least in Tidesverse. Will this be explicitly stated in Tides? no. It's more implied, I suppose? Considering how this fic is going to be quite short. I guess I just wanted to put it out there?
> 
> Anyways yes, I did say verse, meaning there will be more at the end of this fic.
> 
> Am I implying that Kimblee would be the fifth sacrifice? yes. Also, I'm 99% sure that he's even brought up as an option to be the fifth sacrifice but Wrath shot it down.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> Farncomb the name of another Australian Royal Navy unit just like Waller. It's also Collins-Class sub with the SSG 74 Pennant number.
> 
> Kornet comes from the 9M133 Kornet, a Russian Anti-Tank guided missile and Orzel is a Kilo Class Polish Submarine.
> 
> In regard to the ages, I pin Kimblee at being just older than Roy, Roy is written down as being 29-30 years so I put him at 32 since the time skip happened, he would have been 31 at the beginning. 20 when he joined the military under the state alchemists, worked in logistics in ishval until the war kicked off, and then was in infantry until the alchemists were called in. So just some fun background that will probably not be important at all.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter's a bit shorter than usual, and that's just because I had to split 5 and 6 into, well, 5 and 6 since I normally aim for 3k but then it was 5k, and uh, yeah. Anyways. Happy holidays.

Sometimes the universe liked to just give a big "Fuck you in particular" to a select group of people.

Unfortunately, Kimblee happened to be one of them. And even more unfortunate, it seemed as if the rest of the group fell into this category as well.

The light had reappeared sooner than they had hoped in the form of flames from a broken lantern. The end result was a nearly fatal wound from Pride to Heinkel. Of course, as soon as a spark of light has been seen, Kimblee had left the three Xingese— Greed's vessel was in full control— to deal with Gluttony, who had been tagging along with Pride.

Pride had never met Kimblee before. He knew he was in an existence, but he didn't know him. He probably knew stories of his… _success_ in Ishval, but he had never _seen_ him. Never _fought_ him or seen him fight.

And he used that to his advantage, drawing forth the madness that such close contact to anguished souls caused in him. Pride had never seen Kimblee fight before, and seeing a slightly startled look on the Homunculus masquerading as a child's face brought delight to his soul. He had arrived with his hands sparking, eyes wide and feral, disrupting Pride's attacks with his own before falling back when Edward arrived.

And with Flash-bangs from the elderly Xingese man— Fu was his name, from what he gathered, and the other's was Lan Fan.

Pride couldn't function in pure darkness, nor pure light with no shadow it seemed, as they all regrouped— the two Xingese citizens, their Prince, and Edward. Heinkel stood a bit behind Kimblee, leaning against Fu and no longer bleeding as much, but certainly in no shape to fight while the two Homunculi were stood opposite of them— Gluttony crying about how Lan Fan and Ling were able to easily combat him in the dark.

"Gluttony," Kimblee heard Pride start, still staring them down. "How many times have you died?"

Gluttony seemed confused but answered anyway. "A lot? I lost count," he admitted.

Pride hummed. "They've beaten me up pretty badly as well… at this rate, we'll be eradicated."

Kimblee narrowed his eyes, shifting his weight as Heinkel growled lowly. Something was up. Pride wouldn't be this calm if he was certain of the fact that they would be defeated.

Gluttony looked uneasy suddenly, backing away from Pride. Pride just smiled a chilling smile, shadows extending.

"No," Gluttony whimpered. "No, Pride!"

Pride showed no mercy, one of his larger shadows shooting forwards and grabbing the other Homunculus around the middle and lifting him high into the air. Kimblee's jaw set as he cried out, begging for his brother not to kill him, but it was all in vain as the jaws clamped down and tore him in two. The upper half of the Homunculus' body dissolved, while the lower half was snapped up by the many shadows, devouring the Philosopher's Stone inside of him.

Pride only looked satisfied as the rest of them watched in various states of frozen horror and disgust.

"He devoured him," Ling hissed from next to Kimblee. "One of his own kind!"

His hands were clenched and he was barely holding in his rage as Pride sighed in relief, shadows rearing and back to full power.

Kimblee's eyes slid from Pride's main body to them. Something was different. His eyes narrowed a bit. The teeth had changed, they had been flat and square-shaped before— like an herbivore's, but obviously not at all similar in anything aside from shape. But now?

Now they were sharp and certainly more dangerous.

But what did it mean?

Kimblee's mind raced as Pride talked about something or another, thinking and observing.

Each of the Homunculi represented a single one of the main, seven sins.

(There was an eighth under the name 'despair' in some texts but that was beside the point.)

Nonetheless, if there was only one sin per homunculus, then what would happen if another was fully consumed by one of their siblings?

Would that be against what "Father" wanted from them, since his entire reason for creating them was to create a perfect being capable of reaching God?

Would it be seen as being a traitor to "Father" when a homunculus held more than one Sin inside their body?

That was something for another time to think about. The more interesting part was the fact that Pride had just eaten Gluttony.

"Aahh… this should make things much easier," Pride sighed, bringing him back to the situation at hand. "I can detect all of your scents quite clearly!"

He brought his thumb up, licking it with a raised brow. "I could do without this ravenous feeling of hunger, though…"

"That's all well and good," Kimblee said, shifting out of his battle-ready stance and Pride turned to him. A smile that the group knew as icy but to an outsider looked polite was on Kimblee's face.

"And in truth, your little display of power threw me off for a little bit… but here's the thing…"

The smile dropped suddenly, eyes narrowed.

"With the same mouth that you use to speak as 'Pride the Homunculus', you turned and ate one of your own kind," he noted, arms crossing. "You puzzle me, Pride the Homunculus. As a Homunculus your ideals are complicated and above us lower-beings, they are in accordance with your maker's wishes and so you follow his commands."

At this, he began to pace, walking a line between Pride and the others.

"But what of when your maker changes his mind? What then? Will your ideals fall in line there? Or will you continue on as you have been molded to do? What happens when you disobey your maker? Perhaps questions like these are best answered at another time."

He stopped, hand on his chin. "But there is something that has been bothering me for a while, Pride the Homunculus."

Kimblee turned on his heel, facing the monster wearing a boy's face. "When did the Homunculi become such cowards?"

" _What?!"_ the living shadow snarled, tendrils raising and sharpening and teeth gnashing. He raised a brow.

Did the little bastard think _that_ was going to scare him? He might have softened a bit since he had switched sides, but that didn't mean he was an entirely different person. He wasn't _scared_ of death.

"This is what I mean," he sighed, shaking his head and holding his arms out in an 'I give up with you' gesture. "So quick to jump to violence instead of listening to a decent point."

He dropped his arms, frowning and eyes closing as he thought.

"What I want to know, Pride the Homunculus, is when the Homunculi became such cowards?" he repeated. "Because it seems to me that the moment you ran into trouble, instead of holding your head high and going down with your pride intact, you turned on one of your own and killed him just for a bit more power. I can see why Bradley is the strategist of the family, since you certainly aren't."

"You, Pride the Homunculus," Kimblee said as his eyes snapped open. "Are hideous."

Pride's jaw set and his hands curled into fists before with a snarl, he sent his shadows forwards. Kimblee leaped up and back, hands sparking red as he brought the Philosopher's Stone back up. Pride was relentless, sending the largest of the shadows after he and Greed, though while Greed dodged and used his shield to protect himself, Kimblee blasted them at point-blank before ducking out of the way.

It was as he thought.

For one who prided himself on being the eldest and most powerful, he was still prone to fits.

Still, Pride _was_ strong, his reckless rage now just made him more dangerous. Kimblee would have to be careful, if only to buy time for a bit longer— he was counting on Fu to get Heinkel the _hell_ out of here, or at least a ways away.

He twisted out of the way in the meanwhile, keeping the duo in sight as he thrust one of his hands towards Pride's general direction— sending an explosion ripping through the air towards him. It didn't _exactly_ hit its mark, as Pride collected shadows to shield him from the blast. It was enough to let Kimblee get some distance, landing in a crouch.

"Focus on staying alive," he heard Edward shout as his eyes narrowed. He leaped back again, clapping his hands together and channeling more of the stone into his next blast as the earth exploded. Edward dodged to and fro, kicking Lan Fan out of the way of another shadow as Greed was knocked back. Pride was steadily destroying the area around them, consuming the trees and stone in his path.

Kimblee leaped backward once more to avoid more of the shadows, Pride's eyes tracking his every movement. They weren't doing their best, and blood dripped from a shallow cut on his cheek, more from gashes on his arms and chest. But none of them had died yet.

Pride's shadows receded a bit after a moment, eyes staring them all down as the last of the trees around them collapsed.

"That's better," the Homunculus hummed. "Now I've got a better field of vision."

His gaze slid to Greed. "Just how many lives do you have left there, Greed?" he asked his 'brother'. "And it's no use hiding in natural shadows, I can still smell you."

Pride stopped suddenly, sniffing the air. "Finally," he uttered and Kimblee frowned, still ready to attack. "Stepping into the fray now, Hohenheim?"

Kimblee turned, seeing Edward's father stepping into the light, hands in his pockets.

"A hero always waits until the last minute to save the day," the bespectacled man said calmly. "Right?"

That seemed to piss Edward off but Kimblee relaxed just a bit, eyes flicking around the area. He didn't see Fu or Heinkel— they must have gotten away and told Hohenheim about the situation.

Pride rolled his eyes. "Hero? Do you plan on fighting me?"

Hohenheim chuckled. "Oh no," he said, giving Kimblee a side look and he raised a brow. "You're far too scary."

So _that's_ what he was doing.

Kimblee could work with that.

Slowly all of Pride's shadows retreated back to his main body, his eyes narrowed as he gazed at the blonde in concentration. There was a long moment of silence before Hohenheim stepped forward and Pride tensed.

And then suddenly Alphonse was there, rushing at Pride from behind and a hand outstretched. Pride caught him in shadow easily, only glancing behind him.

"Sneaking up while I was focused on Hohenheim?" he asked, "What a pedestrian strategy."

Pride's shadows started to spread out again as Alphonse dropped to his knees, armor clinking and shuddering. Kimblee shifted, holding his Philosopher's Stone against his teeth with his tongue.

A flashbang was easy enough to create. The shadows just had to spread out a little bit farther.

Just as he was about to send the transmutation through the ground to plant the flashbang at Pride's feet, the Homunculus suddenly drew all his shadows back.

Well. He was getting smarter. That wasn't exactly a good thing.

He shifted back, redirecting the energy back to his body. Hohenheim seemed to understand as Pride knocked Alphonse's helmet from his shoulders, rapping his knuckles against the chest plate.

"Well, I finally have my hostage back," the Homunculus taunted, "Your kid's got a lot of learning left to do."

Hohenheim's entire demeanor shifted suddenly. Gone was the kindly, slightly aloof old man who was just trying his best, and standing in his spot was the man who was Von Hohenheim.

"Don't _ever_ mock my son."

Kimblee stepped back half a step when red alchemic sparks crackled around them and the earth shuddered. The intense feeling of a Philosopher's Stone being used ripped through his entire being, resonating with the one he held in between his teeth. Pride seemed startled for a bit, but scowled suddenly.

In seconds, he released Alphonse and used his shadows to propel himself up and out of the dome of earth that Hohenheim was creating around him.

The homunculus' eyes were narrowed as he gazed down at them from above.

"It seems even with Gluttony I remain outclassed," Pride mused, tilting his head. The shadows gathered and strengthened, holding him up above them for a few moments longer.

Pride smiled suddenly. "No matter, obtaining another stone is easy enough."

The smile was chillingly cold and calculated. Kimblee was no fool, though. He understood what the Homunculus was insinuating.

"No thanks," was all Kimblee said in return. "I happen to like the one I have. I think I'll keep it."

Pride's eyes hardened. "I was being merciful," he said, "But it seems that you would rather die!" with a simple flick of his hand, the Homunculus dropped back down and sent his shadows racing towards them again.

"You say that like it's threatening," he snarked as he, Edward, and Hohenheim scattered. "Oblivion isn't so terrifying, but I suppose you wouldn't know!"

He hit the ground, red alchemic sparks leaped from his fingers as the earth exploded under Pride. Nearby, Edward slashed shadows away from him and Hohenheim, who was dodging quite impressively. Pride snarled something but was cut off as Alphonse tackled him from behind suddenly. The Homunculus was startled enough by the action to let up his attacks momentarily, but that was all he needed.

Using the Philosopher's Stone, Kimblee transmuted a flashbang at Pride's feet. He turned on his heel, tossing a second one to Lan Fan as he dodged a shadow coming for his neck. The Xingese woman caught it easily, seeming to catch on without a word. She tossed it without a second thought over to Pride, both of them going off at the same time and momentarily blinding everyone in the vicinity.

"Do it now, Hohenheim!" Kimblee yelled and the earth shook again. The same ripple of pure power tore through the area as slabs of earth rose up and created a dome around Pride and Alphonse— this time Pride couldn't escape, even when the light cleared and his shadows returned.

"KIMBLEE!" Pride screamed, eyes filled with rage and, in a last-ditch effort, the Homunculus threw his larger shadows outwards. Kimblee threw one of his arms up, stopping the jaws from clamping around his throat in favor of his arm. He grit his teeth, feeling the shadow's teeth pierce into his skin, hanging on even when the dome closed up fully. Then the shadow was forced to vanish.

There was silence for a moment.

Then Edward exploded, yelling at his father.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I sorta get why Pride didn't try to escape, I do think he had enough time to throw himself out of the trap if he didn't want to keep a hold of Alphonse. That's just my opinion.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> In the Manga, Pride's teeth go from being flat to being sharp and pointy. someone did a tumblr analysis on it and how Father gave an indicator that Pride was growing too ambitious and was going to betray him as a precaution when creating him. Essentially, the teeth changing from flat to sharp was how Father would be able to tell if Pride ate one of his siblings (basically holding more than one sin inside of him). I just like this theory so here it is.
> 
> Another point, in some sects of Christianity there is an eighth sin: despair. Kimblee would know this because he's a Lil shit.
> 
> Am I jumping between Homunculi and Homunculus when speaking in plural? yes. Because I'm stupid.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It took some time to edit this chapter but I'm dropping this early because tomorrow, the 27th, I will be traveling all day and unable to post it. Hope everyone who celebrated had a happy holiday.

Unsurprisingly, Heinkel found himself out of commission for a bit. He was easily the most injured of the group, followed only by Kimblee and Edward and even then, the only major injury between the two Alchemists— who were currently helping out the people of Kanama in clearing the burnt and wrecked portions of the forest— was the giant bite from Pride on Kimblee's arm.

The sole doctor from Kanama, a Doctor Rosanne Renee, had patched them up the best she could— certainly kinder than Ezra, considering how her first greeting towards Kimblee wasn't to stab him— but there was only so much that she could do. Kimblee had admitted that he wasn't confident in healing others with the Philosopher's stone— the most he had ever done for himself was his ears— and Hohenheim had said that he had next to zero skill in alchemic healing— aside from, apparently, rearranging organs. Heinkel didn't want to know what that meant so he didn't bother to ask.

But he told the two that he was fine healing naturally. In truth, he was more worried about Edward and Kimblee pulling the stitches while they helped out with clearing the damage done in the forest.

Kimblee had told them that lumber was a commodity that was useful to sell into Central, but there were regulations— ones that didn't apply if trees were damaged.

So, despite the late hour, and joined with all the commotion, Kimblee and a number of citizens from Kanama had started to drag trees over to the clearing made by Pride and cutting them down to size. Edward had joined in to help, as had Darius, after a bit. A few citizens managed to drag Hohenheim into the task as well.

Heinkel had met the man from the food stand and his wife— Oliver and Kamilla Cuto, Kimblee had told them when he introduced the pair to them, along with the Doctor and a few other residents he knew. The couple had been more than happy to serve the various lumber groups their dinner, and Heinkel had helped the two out some— since he couldn't exactly help with lumber clearing with one arm in a sling.

He was also watching over Edward's, Hohenheim's, Darius', and Kimblee's things set down not too far from where he was sitting.

Edward's coats and jacket had been tossed casually on the ground, though his fathers and Darius had been a bit neater and folded their outer coats. Kimblee had grumbled about Edward's mess and ended up folding his discarded clothes and setting them to the side before stripping his own coat off and joining the others.

Darius was off helping a blonde-haired man who had introduced himself as Sami Vincent, but the other three were in the forest still. And despite the late hour, Sami was as cheery as could be.

It was shouting from where he and Darius were that made Heinkel look over. Darius, holding a saw over his shoulder, was arguing with two figures while Sami tried to deescalate the situation, though having a saw in his hand probably didn't help much either.

Heinkel squinted a bit, before his shoulders relaxed and he started to stand up, but a wince and a glare from Doctor Rosanne made him stand slower. She looked away and back to watching over a group of young men who were cutting up a few logs— the woman somehow always knowing when his stitches were pulling throughout the night.

"What in god's name are you three arguing about?" he asked as he walked over and the two newcomers whirled around.

Yeah, he'd recognize those two anywhere.

"Heinkel!" Zampano exclaimed, shoulders tense and ready for a fight. Heinkel glanced at Darius, who gave him a look of long-suffering that he definitely picked up from Kimblee before he looked back to the two other Chimeras. Sami looked confused but realized that Heinkel had it under control and left. A smart move.

"Before you ask if we're here to take you two out," Heinkel started, holding his good arm up in a sign of meaning no harm. "The three of us defected from Central."

Zampano and Jerso still looked skeptical but relaxed a bit at that.

"Wait," Jerso said suddenly, eyes widening just a bit. "Three?"

"Hello to you, too."

Both Chimeras whirled around again, startling so much that they tripped over their feet and fell back. Kimblee was standing behind them, leaves in his hair and a brow raised.

"Good to see that Scar didn't kill you two, though that means he did get away," he noted with a slight nod, glancing over to where Edward was coming out from the forest and over to where the rest of the two's group was standing with Fu and Hohenheim. "I see you've been traveling with them, too. Good."

The two gaped at Kimblee while he and Darius exchanged amused looks from either side of Kimblee.

"You're not—"

"You mean—"

Kimblee raised an unimpressed eyebrow. "Quinn, Masina, I've been against Central since I got out of prison. Being left to rot for six years only to be brought out and told to go chase a serial killer really does change perspective."

"Then why order _us_ to fight Scar?" Zampano asked. Kimblee hummed, leaning back on his heels a bit.

"I gambled on the Elric brothers jumping into the fight," he said after a moment, "And figured the two of them would have an easier time getting through to you. They want their bodies back, you want yours."

"Meanwhile, the three of us bonded over being gay," Darius added. "And Kimblee and Heinkel quite literally."

Heinkel ignored his stitches and nailed Darius in the shoulder with his fist— though it was in mock ire, and the gorilla knew that.

"So that's basically it?" He heard Jerso ask Kimblee, and the black-haired man hummed as Darius cursed Heinkel out. Heinkel just rolled his eyes, grimacing, but the stitches didn't pull too, too much.

(Rosanne didn't seem to notice at least.)

A shout, followed by a loud crash made both Darius and Kimblee look back to the forest. Then to each other.

"I left them alone for three minutes," Kimblee sighed before taking off. Darius ran after him as Heinkel chuckled, watching him leave before he turned back to Zampano and Jerso.

"Strange circumstances, isn't it?" he asked as he moved to sit back down.

"You're telling us," Jerso grumbled, standing up and brushing his pants off. He then helped Zamapno up, the other bespectacled man shaking his head.

"He seems lighter than before," the Boar Chimera noted. "Mister Kimblee, I mean."

Heinkel hummed a bit.

"He's a complicated man with a kinda fucked up past from what I can tell," He said after a moment. "Central and the Homunculi targeted him, groomed him, and created a weapon because they allowed him to be in control, to be the one in power. They targeted his inner madness. I think being in Prison eased him out of that haze. And the longer he was freed, so to speak, the more he became… well, that. And of course, being here helps. Kanama's pretty nice people wise."

Jerso snorted a bit. "And you all trust him?"

"He's the one who came to Darius and I first about turning on Central, threatened to blast us to bits if we were loyal, if only to cover his tracks," he told him, watching the two's eyes widen. "Luckily, Darius and I had always been pretty anti-Central since they turned us into Chimeras. While we're not into the whole getting our bodies back to normal thing, it was a bit shitty how they did it."

He paused as the two other Chimeras looked between each other before back to Heinkel.

"That's fair," Jerso said, chuckling. "We just got families to get back to. Rather be normal than not."

"Mm, yeah, I don't really have any family left," Heinkel agreed. "And it doesn't seem like Solf minds that I'm a Chimera. He's not the best physically so being able to—"

A loud explosion sounded in the forest followed by Jonas yelling something that sounded suspiciously like "FOR FUCKS SAKE JOSIAH" and then cackling from the said Alchemist. Heinkel saw Scar startle out of the corner of his eye and Marcoh tense up.

(Jonas was Oliver and Kamilla's son and he knew Kimblee since he was a baby. He was a good kid, despite the rough exterior, and he, like a number of others in Kanama, referred to Kimblee by his middle name. The two had a sibling-esque relationship, it seemed.)

"Oh right," Heinkel sighed, "We might have some minor alliance issues. Especially between Scar and Solf."

"Forget that shit," Zampano grunted, sitting down. "You just called to Kimblee as his first name, you two together or somethin'?"

"Darius did say something about that…" Jerso mused.

Heinkel rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, we are. Though it's kinda shitty timing, isn't it? We're in our last days, quite possibly. But hey, if we all survive then I'm sure as hell gonna try and figure out a way to make sure he's not in solitary the rest of his life. And try and figure a way around the anti-fraternity laws. Sure, under Bradley we could weasel past the marriage law but a new administration might not be so flexible."

"Yeah, I doubt the bigwigs up there would be happy about letting Kimblee walk around freely," the Amphibian Chimera noted. The three of them all hummed in agreement to that statement before Jonas dragged Kimblee back into the clearing, Darius trailing behind them.

"Hey, Lion King," Jonas said with a scowl, pushing Kimblee towards him. "Keep Josiah from causin' trouble."

"What did you do this time?" Heinkel asked. Kimblee looked offended at that.

"He asked if I could get rid of some trees and I did."

"I didn't mean for ya to blow 'em all to hell!" the teen cried and Darius hid a snort. "You almost killed me an' Brody!"

"And I'm sure that you're very offended at that," the black-haired man drawled, and Heinkel couldn't help but notice the smug air around him. "But really, I missed Brody by a mile and a fall would do you some good. You're growing soft, Jonas, what happened to the toddler who would kick my shins any time he could?"

Jonas cracked his knuckles, brow twitching. "Still right here, bastard, I'll knock that upper-class accent right from your teeth!"

Jonas and Edward would get along well, Heinkel thought briefly as he watched the two. For many reasons, aside from being the same age.

"Let's not fight," Darius interjected, sweating a bit and giving Heinkel a look. He raised a brow in return but sighed, reaching up and grabbing Kimblee by his ponytail. He yanked down, making the man let out a yelp of shock, before falling ungracefully into his lap. A strong arm wrapped around his chest was all that was needed to make the Alchemist stay put.

"That good enough?" he asked Jonas, the brown-eyed boy nodding.

"Thanks, Lion King!" he said as he turned to run after his group as they went to go grab their lunch break.

Well. Midnight meal break, really.

"You can at least learn my name!" Heinkel shouted back before sighing with a shake of the head. Kimblee squirmed a bit in his hold, scowling but finally settling down with a slight huff.

"So, Mister Kimblee…" Jerso ventured slowly, "You seem… friendly, with the people here…"

Kimblee hummed, nodding as he resigned to getting comfortable. "I was born in Araunya, but I would often come to Kanama to escape that hell. I know a number of people here."

"I would've thought you were from Central," Zampano mused and Heinkel snorted a bit. Kimblee shrugged.

"Most do, but I'm only half Amestrian with a Xingese mother I never met. People knew in the Military that I wasn't from Central— Kimblee wasn't a Central Born name, I didn't look anything like my Amestrian father, and I didn't go through the Academy but got in because I was an Alchemist," he said simply. "But I learned quickly how to hold myself like the rest of the Central upper class so it threw people off. Adjusted my accent too," he told him before Hohenheim walked over to them.

"We're going over the last of the battle plans now," he told them and the four of them nodded. Heinkel let go of Kimblee and he stood, stretching before holding his hand out. Heinkel grasped it, standing up slowly as Zampano and Jerso stood as well. They followed the blonde Immortal over to the others and instantly the tension and anger shot up. Scar had shifted into a battle-ready stance, Marcoh shifting back behind him. Edward scowled, but shifted slightly between Scar and Kimblee.

"No fighting, we're all on the same side now," he ordered.

"You get no fight from me, Fullmetal," Kimblee said, shrugging. "I'd rather not make Lukas and Rosanne any more pissed off."

That made Marcoh's shoulders drop just a bit. "You mean…?"

Heinkel nodded. "Yeah, he's with us, has been since prison," he said, placing a hand on Kimblee's shoulder. Scar bristled.

"Then why attack and hunt Marcoh and I down? No, I refuse to work with him, Fullmetal. I refuse to work with anyone else who was part of Ishval," he told the blonde. Edward grit his teeth, glaring at Kimblee as if telling him to _do something!_

"It's called acting and you won't be," Kimblee said, waving him off. "Actually, this is a good opportunity to talk about this. I'm staying in Kanama until the Promised Day passes."

"What!?" Edward cried, whirling around entirely. "Why!? I thought-!"

Kimblee held up three fingers, interrupting the boy. "First of all, recall how the Homunculi needed you, your brother, and your father for sacrifices on the Promised Day. And how Hohenheim stated that your Teacher also fit the requirements of opening the Gate to be a sacrifice as well," he told Edward. "Alchemy's numbers work well in primes— three, five, and seven. The Array that Amestris makes is a five-point one, meaning that they need a fifth person to open the Gate. Meaning they need an Alchemist, one whose body and mind can withstand the process. Of the Alchemists left, Marcoh, Mustang, and I would be the only ones to fit. Scar is also at risk too, perhaps, as is Armstrong. And Mustang already chose to go into Central, but I will not be the final sacrifice."

There was silence as the group took in his words, but overall, there seemed to be some agreement in what he was saying— no matter how grudging it was on Scar's end. Kimblee continued.

"On a lighter note, I'm also planning to stay here for two more reasons: to protect your brother and to keep tabs on Pride. The plan is to make sure Alphonse and Pride remain here until the Promised Day passes, right?"

At the nods, he continued.

"Well, there's no way that 'Father' will let that happen. Furthermore, nor will Pride," he told them.

Darius crossed his arms. "What can Pride do, though? He's stuck in there with no way out."

"You forget that Pride is over three hundred years old, easily," Kimblee sighed, "He's smart, he'll find a way. I know that _if_ I was still with them, I would probably be on my way to bust him out. Wrath is in Central, or at least closer to it than we are. So that means something else going to be on its way over if not him— remember only two of the seven are dead. Lust and Gluttony. Pride is trapped, Wrath is occupied, Greed is heading for Central with Fu. So, that leaves Envy and Sloth unaccounted for. Last I knew, Sloth was in the north, but that was over six months ago when _we_ were all still up north. For all we know he's back in Central."

There was silence as the group thought before Marcoh spoke up.

"Envy's out of the picture," he said, a bit hesitantly. Kimblee blinked.

"Oh?"

He nodded. "We dealt with him."

"Impressive," he said, humming. "That's quite a feat. The one time I tried to do it, he turned into my father and startled me."

"And when was that, Kimblee?" Scar spat. Kimblee snorted.

"Where do you think, Scar? I didn't come into the Military knowing the Homunculi, but I sure as hell came out knowing."

"Either way," Heinkel cut in, frowning. "That still means Sloth could come for us and none of us know anything about that one. Since I doubt Bradley would come all the way out here for Pride."

"Never underestimate the Homunculi, Heinkel," Kimblee warned, shaking his head. "But I sure as hell hope he stays where he is. I'd rather _not_ fight him if I can help it."

"Scared?"

"Bradley is an entire military unit on his own, I can stall him but not defeat him— and that's only if he's feeling merciful. So yes, Scar, I might be. I'm allowed to be. He's not exactly like any other Homunculus and I spent six years wasting away."

Hohenheim cleared his throat before any more arguing broke out. "So Kimblee's planning on staying here, should we have others stay?"

"I can," Heinkel offered. "I'm no use to you guys injured."

"And I'll stay as well," Marcoh added. "I'm not a fighter, and I'm afraid I can't do much on the sidelines either. Besides, Kimblee brought up a good point. I could be used as a fifth sacrifice."

Zampano turned to Yoki. "You should stay here too, Yoki, help protect this place."

Yoki startled but agreed before Lan Fan spoke up.

"I see smoke coming from Central," she told them. "And there's an emergency alarm going off, I believe."

"Sounds about right," Heinkel sighed, tilting his head as he listened to the blaring noise that had started up not too long ago.

"Hohenheim, do you have a map of Central?" Kimblee asked and the man shook his head. He sighed but crossed his arms, closing his eyes.

"You should all head out, use the confusion from what I can assume is Mustang's work to get underground," he said slowly, "There are several underground entrances you can use but I'm trying to remember if there's a good one that leads directly to the center."

"Why do you know all of this, Kimblee?" Edward asked and the Alchemist opened one eye. "Kanama wasn't the only place I tried to escape to. Central is full of underground passages if we want more food than we get in our slums we go to the edge of the city and go underground. Of course, then there's the act of stealing without getting caught, but that's what the smaller drain systems are for, though I doubt most of you would fit. But, Edward, you're small enough, if you want to use those."

"WHO'RE YOU CALLIN' SO MICROSCOPIC THAT NO ONE WOULD EVEN NOTICE IF THEY STEPPED ON HIM?!"

"Anyways," Kimblee said, ignoring the seething blonde. "You need to get to the underground liar quickly, but do you have a fail-safe in case the array is activated?" he asked, glancing at Hohenheim.

"I do," the bespectacled man said. "But it would be better if it didn't activate at all."

"We can all at least agree on that," Jerso said. Kimblee tilted his head back, looking up at the sky.

"Scar, you wouldn't happen to know a way in, would you?"

"Why the hell are you asking me?" he growled and Heinkel growled back, startling Marcoh and the others who had been in that group a bit.

"Is that a yes or a no?" Kimblee drawled and Scar scowled.

"I do," he admitted. "I went there once with Mei. It lead to that so-called "Father's" area. It's guarded by countless, blood-thirsty Chimera, but with all of us we should be able to get in."

"Then we should head out," Darius said. "Let's roll!"

"Right!"

"Be safe," Heinkel added as the group separated, Edward going to talk to Alphonse, Darius, Jerso, and Zampano watching the sky with Lan Fan, and Marcoh and the other doing something else that he wasn't exactly trying to figure out. Kimblee staid where he was, seemingly lost in thought, so he decided to stay with him.

He bristled slightly as Scar approached the two of them suddenly, making Kimblee look up with a raised brow.

"I don't trust you, Kimblee," the man growled.

"I don't expect you to, Scar," Kimblee said back, tone neutral.

"If you let Pride free, I'll come back and kill you myself."

Kimblee let out a bark of laughter. "If Pride's been let free it's because I've already been killed."

Scar glowered a bit more before he turned, stalking off and Kimblee shook his head. "What an interesting conversation."

"I'm not sure if it could be called that," Heinkel said back before a call from Hohenheim grabbed both of their attentions and the blonde immortal jogged over to them.

Heinkel stayed near Kimblee as the man talked briefly with Hohenheim, something about Alchemy things that Heinkel hadn't the interest in, but it seemed Kimblee was more than happy to discuss the failsafe that the blonde immortal had.

When they finished, and Hohenheim walked off to talk with Scar about it, Kimblee called Edward over from where he was finishing up his talk with Alphonse.

"What is it, Kimblee?" The blonde teen asked as he jogged over. "Your birthday was a few months ago right? While we were all still on the run?" he asked and Heinkel blinked. He hadn't even known when the kid's birthday _was_ , he wondered how Kimblee did.

It seemed that it was right though since Edward nodded. "Yeah, I'm sixteen now. Why?"

"I don't exactly have anything on me, but happy birthday late, Edward," he said, ruffling his hair. Edward looked startled, opening his mouth to say something only for Kimblee to continue.

"Stay alive and when this is all over, you and Alphonse come visit me in prison so I can teach at least one of you to tie a tie. You should at least look nice when you marry Winry."

Heinkel let out a roar of laughter when Edward flushed bright red and decided to throw a punch at Kimblee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More Heinkel pov bc it's good civ. Also, I don’t know the exact details of philosophers stone healing, but considering how they had to bring a doctor in to help heal Kimblee, I would assume that he himself does not have the anatomical knowledge to heal himself fully, nor does he have the skills to heal others even with the stone. He can heal himself to a point, but not much else just out of precaution.
> 
> Edward forced his body while using the stone (in this canon) to heal just to stop the bleeding, but the Trio took him to a doctor’s anyway. In this canon too, Ezra had stated that Kimblee’s own impalement healing was a shitty job. Medical Alchemy and Bio-Alchemy is, from what I recall, difficult to master, so only real doctors like Marcoh could do it well. Also Fuck the Gold Toothed Doctor, that man crusty and gross as fuck. I don't trust him.
> 
> Anyway, what I'm saying is that they’d have to wait for Marcoh to arrive to fully heal Heinkel.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> Sami Vincent is a carpenter and another OC. I’m going to have an OC list up on AO3 eventually, but with all OCs across my fics
> 
> In the Anime, it’s still night time and there's no one around, but in the manga there are some citizens from Kanama just. around. Darius is helping one cut up a tree. So bam. Wood as a commodity. Also more Kanama! Kimblee and his friends from the slum. Im going to end up making another AU aren’t I? (Jokes on you, I already have)
> 
> Anyways, another headcanon from me: Kimblee’s half Xingese. That’s it. His mother was from Xing, his father was Amestrian. It's like a combination pizza hut and taco bell. Except Kimblee looks much more like his mother than his father.
> 
> A bonus "Kimblee and Scar work together because they have to" AU
> 
> The part about the sacrifices has, in part with, how Kimblee is, according to Word of God ™ (aka Arakawa), the third smartest character in the entire series, and how it's very clear that Kimblee is very important to the downfall of pride. And there will be pain coming soon in regards to Pride and Kimblee.
> 
> Also Kimblee knowing underground tunnels and the sewer systems because you can't tell me that starving slum children wouldn't sneak into central using them to just get like a single crust of bread. my weird-ass au, my rules (i guess???)
> 
> Anyways, that's the end of the extra notes. Have a nice day!


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, if you're in DC, please be careful. I'm sorry everything is happening.

As soon as the group headed for Central left, Kimblee had the Kanama citizens clear out as well— though he had also sent Marcoh and Yoki into the slum. Marcoh more or less because he was a doctor and while Rosanne was great, there were still a number of things that could be done for assistance. Yoki simply because he would have gotten in the way.

Kimblee, in the meanwhile, had gone to patrol the area while Heinkel kept watch over Alphonse and Pride— but he really should have known better. His sixth sense had been something that had been with him for a long time. Being able to sense when something was amiss or when danger was approaching was something that one needed to have in Araunya, especially with Waller as a father.

So when he got that same feeling that warned him when bottles were about to start flying, Kimblee was on instant alert. He had already been on his way back when the prickling sense of unease overtook his senses. Then a loud 'boom' rocked the air from where Pride, Alphonse, and Heinkel were.

He took off running as soon as he heard the noise, clapping his hands together and holding the alchemic explosion in wait as he approached the Pride-Made clearing.

Flashes of silver steel and a blue uniform were all the indications that he needed.

The worst-case scenario had arrived.

Dust and smoke were rising up from the dome as Pride stepped out, looking over as Kimblee slowed to a halt. Bradley followed his gaze, raising a brow when he saw him.

"Kimblee," the human-homunculus hybrid said evenly. "What a surprise to see you here, the reports from Briggs stated that you were dead."

"Not really," he replied, just as even as he shifted his footing. "Funny, though, I thought you were in Central, Bradley— or should I call you Wrath, now?"

"We don't have time for idle talk," Pride sighed, shadows curling and waving as he stared Kimblee down. "This is your last chance, Crimson Lotus. I will overlook your attack against me if you come with us and Alphonse with us back to Central, _now."_

Kimblee's fingers twitched. "Someone doesn't know what 'no' means," he sighed shaking his head. "First you're a coward, now you're just stupid? Give me a break. I told you, you can't just expect to leave a man in prison for six years and then drag him back out without some changes."

Pride bristled. "Very well, you'll die like the rest, Kimblee!" he snarled before he threw his shadows forwards.

He leaped back, placing his hands on the ground and sending the held reaction from before through the ground. It tore through the earth, sending dirt and stone up into the air, but it didn't deter Bradley as he kicked off the uneven terrain, swords flashing as he slashed at Kimblee. He bent back, gritting his teeth as he was forced to dodge the two blades and Pride's shadows.

And so began a deadly dance.

When he could, he would force the Homunculus back with an explosion, but it wasn't doing much. He was no match for two Homunculi, he knew, but he was edging towards the dome and the dust cover.

Dodging another slash from Bradley, he cursed as the second sword cut through his skin.

"You can't possibly hope to win against me, Kimblee," Bradley told him, his visible eye narrowed as he leaped back from the Homunculus again.

"I'm not trying to win against you," he said, grimacing at the slash on his arm. "I'm trying to not get dragged back to Central."

Bradley raised a brow at that. "To think that before you had no qualms with simply following orders," he observed, and Kimblee shrugged, arms out as he sighed.

"Things change, Bradley, that's what makes humans human," he said. Bradley just scoffed.

"And here I thought that your golden rule was to never betray your beliefs."

Kimblee gave him a look. "It seems that you've begun to lack intelligence as well, Bradley?" he asked before he leaped back to avoid another swing. "I just told you that things change. The moment you left me in solitary was the moment the collar broke off. My values haven't changed, just the way I go about acting on them did."

He ducked and twisted between Pride's shadows and Bradley's swings, gritting his teeth as the sharp substance stabbed him through the leg, just as he ducked to the side to avoid a stab to the head. Bradley's other sword caught in him in his other arm, stabbing through and he bit back a sharp cry of pain.

He grabbed the blade with his other hand, drawing up power from the Philosopher's stone and shattering it before he leaped back again. Bradley inspected the blade before gazing back at Kimblee.

"Pity," he said, "You could have seen victory and lived out the rest of your life without worry."

"I wasn't ever fond of the idea of Immortality. It sounded boring, so no thanks," he told him in return before he clapped his hands together. He kicked up another cloud of dust, retreating further and back towards the dome.

"Alphonse!" he called lowly, moving as quickly as his injuries would allow him.

"Mister Kimblee!" the boy's voice cried from the dust. "Over here!"

He cursed lowly, quickly limping over to him.

He sucked in a sharp breath at the sight. Alphonse's legs had been transmuted off of him, and he was trying to drag a bleeding and half-dead Heinkel into the dome to safety.

"What happened?" he demanded, kneeling and feeling for a pulse.

"It was Bradley, Pride was using my head to alert them of our location! Bradley just showed up out of nowhere and broke Pride out!" Alphonse told him, letting go of Heinkel and Kimblee relaxed slightly, feeling a weak beat under his fingers against Heinkel's neck. The Chimera coughed weakly, eyes opening just slightly and hazy with pain.

"Solf?" he wheezed and he nodded.

"Yeah, I'm here, come on, we gotta get you to Marcoh," he said, tense again and listening for movement in the dust. Heinkel winced, shaking his head.

"We'll never make it," he grunted. "You two get out of here… You're the only one who can protect Alphonse, now…"

Kimblee bristled slightly. "Don't be a dumbass," he told him with a slight hiss. "Survival is a victory in and of itself, so don't you go and fucking die on me, you damn cat!"

The Lion wheezed out a laugh, blood dripping from his lips.

"That's right… you did say that…" he grunted, face twisting in pain. Kimblee grimaced before he turned to Alphonse.

"You and your brother are against using the stone to get your bodies back, right?" he asked and the boy trapped in armor nodded. Kimblee clenched his stomach, forcing up both Philosopher's Stones he held and dropping them into his palm. He rolled them between his fingers thinking about what to say next.

"Each soul in the stone is in anguish, using one frees it from limbo, they have no bodies to return to, and no way for us to give them one," he told the boy, "You know your body's composition more than I do."

He stood up, holding the stones between his fingers, holding them up. "These souls in here are ready to fight Bradley for ordering their deaths. Every single one of them was a life stolen from Amestris. Knocking Bradley down a few pegs is an honor for us."

He turned to Alphonse and Heinkel. "Take Heinkel to Marcoh," he told him, "I'll hold Pride and Bradley off for as long as I can."

He knelt back down, eye level with the boy.

"Do not look back," he told him before he grabbed the boy's armored hand, pressing the round stone into it. "This one is stronger, newer. Marcoh will know what to do with it. Get Heinkel out of here and _live."_

"Solf—" Heinkel warned, struggling to sit up but Kimblee silenced him with a sudden kiss, grabbing him by his shirt. Pulling back, he wiped his lips with his tongue, grimacing at the sharp taste of blood.

"Remember, Lukas hasn't been formally introduced to you. Don't die before you can be," he said, standing back up and stepping away from the two of them, popping the other stone into his mouth for safekeeping.

"Go," he told Alphonse before he took off, Philosopher's Stone between his teeth. He heard the clinking of armor before he continued on. As he neared the edge of the dust cloud that had been providing cover for them, he flicked his wrist. The familiar energy of the familiar stone coursed through his body and he blasted the dust to the side.

"And here I thought you'd be smart enough to simply run away," Bradley said, seeing him walk back out. Kimblee just chuckled, feeling the claws of Araunya creep back into his mind.

"Nah," he said, shrugging. "You see, I _do_ have a bone to pick with you. And I'm still quite mad at Pride, betraying one of your own like that."

"I hardly think you can be one to talk about betrayal, Kimblee," Bradley mused, shifting his stance.

"Oh, I'm certainly no saint when it comes to these matters," he agreed, "But Pride's just a coward. It's fairly pathetic."

Pride sneered. "I wouldn't be so quick to call someone out on being pathetic—"

"You're pathetic and hideous," Kimblee cut in, "A hypocritical being who boasts about Pride and being superior. I'm not your bitch, Homunculus."

The eldest Homunculus bristled, but— unfortunately— Bradley still seemed to have his wits about him.

"The time for conversation is over," Bradley said, and without a second prompt, he shot forwards. Kimblee's formerly impassive face split into a maniac grin suddenly.

"You took the words right from my mouth," he said back before thrusting his palm forwards.

An explosion was set off in front of the Fürher, though he simply moved through it— singed and a bit burnt, but undeterred. Kimblee didn't allow that to shake him, twisting out of the way of a swing from the Homunculus with a slight cackle. He ignored any injuries he got as he dodged between blades and shadow, focusing only on buying time. Perhaps they knew, perhaps not, but the two were relentless either way.

Then a flashbang appeared at Pride's feet. Kimblee twisted away from it, covering his eyes with one hand as it went off.

Kimblee didn't wait, instantly moving as soon as the light cleared to where he knew Bradley was. He pressed a hand to the man's back, sending him flying with an explosion before he heard pride curse as Alphonse came out of nowhere, clashing with him. Bradley got up slowly, face drawn into a deep frown as he pulled his eyepatch off.

"You should have run when you had the chance, Kimblee."

"I'm not really a coward, so no," he said flatly back. Bradley just adjusted his sword before leaping forwards again. Kimblee planted his feet, waiting for the next strike, mind moving, planning and strategizing quickly.

Bradley was strong— obviously— and much stronger than anyone else he had fought before. But he was Waller's son, born with blood on his hands in the heart of Araunya's hell. He learned two things from Waller— how to drink, and how to fight.

Kimblee caught the first blade between his palms as it came down on him, his grin never leaving his face— simply widening to reveal the Philosopher's stone clenched between his teeth.

He saw Bradley's eye widen as red alchemical sparks exploded from his hands as he deconstructed the sword in moments. But Bradley wasn't idle, swinging his other sword up and across Kimblee's chest. He dropped down to the ground backward at the last second— avoiding a fatal gash, but the blood still managed an impressive arc as it followed the path of the sword.

Using the momentum of his fall, he braced his hands on the ground and pushed off and back. His heel connected with Bradley's chin as he kicked up and over before leaping back. He stood, watching Bradley carefully as he pressed a hand to the gash to staunch the blood flow. The Homunculus hybrid tossed his broken blade to the side.

"Humans are quite persistent and stubborn," he said. "Just give up and die peacefully."

"Now you know I can't do that," Kimblee said, wincing a bit before blinking as Alphonse was tossed into the air and crashed down next to him. Pride gracefully leaped down from a stone structure that Alphonse probably made as the armored figure clambered to his feet.

"You have no chance of winning," Pride sighed, "None of you do, not while Father still remains in central."

"Perhaps, but that's what makes humans so interesting," he told the two Homunculus as Alphonse stood up. Kimblee placed a hand down on the boy's shoulder, locating a gap in the armor.

When he had kicked Bradley in the chin, he had dropped the stone onto the ground— only to place his hand on it and pick it up before Bradley saw.

And it was currently in the hand placed on Alphonse's shoulder. He dropped the second Stone into the armor before he stepped away from him, cracking his neck.

He could see Marcoh with Heinkel just barely in his line of sight, but edging into it— and Yoki had arrived with a car that was most likely stolen Military property.

Good.

Alphonse shifted into a ready to fight stance as Kimblee adjusted his own. Bradley watched them both like a hawk, as did Pride, and then Kimblee clapped his hands together. Bradley surged forwards, prepared to rush headlong through an explosion, only that wasn't what happened.

Kimblee dropped down swiftly, exploding the ground under Alphonse and sending him flying up into the air— unharmed, but certainly startled. The boy cried out as he sailed through the air, slamming into the ground not far from the car and missing Marcoh by a hair as he forced Heinkel into the stolen vehicle.

Bradley thrust his sword forwards and Kimblee grit his teeth, still grinning as the blade stabbed him through the shoulder. He clapped his hands together, only to get kicked in the chest and sent back several feet. He felt his ribs bend and crack under the force of the kick, but he was quick to recover.

"YOKI, GET THEM OUT OF HERE!" He yelled despite the rough landing. Marcoh was smart enough to catch on, as the doctor hurriedly forced Alphonse into the car as well— struggling to keep Heinkel in at the same time. Kimblee stood, still grinning despite the pain. Marcoh spared him one glance behind him at him, and Kimblee simply gave him a two-fingered salute.

The doctor swallowed before he hurried to climb into the car. Pride snarled, moving to send shadows after them, but Kimblee sent an explosion through the ground at him instead. It kicked up enough dust to act as cover as the car sped away, leaving the three of them alone.

And then faster than he could blink, shadowy jaws snapped shut like a steel trap around his throat. Pain shot through his body, but he couldn't scream, couldn't breathe as blood seemed to cover his entire line of sight.

He felt his feet lift up off the ground and then he was suspended and Pride was moving. He could see the sky through the haze of red, burning pain welling up in his chest and throat.

He couldn't breathe—

He saw the car in the distance, and if vaguely occurred to him that Pride was holding him up for them to see, like some sort of trophy.

He felt his vision going hazy as he was flung upwards suddenly, blood dripping from his lips and wounds.

"Filthy human," he heard Pride snarl from somewhere far away.

He felt his body hit the ground, hard and he wheezed out a gasp.

Kimblee wasn't afraid of death.

A shadow fell over him, Pride, with his eyes slanted upwards in delight as he stared down at him. He was speaking, but Kimblee couldn't hear a word of what he was saying.

The shadows were spreading.

Kimblee wasn't afraid of death. He knew from the beginning that he was more likely to die here than see this through to the end.

A thin tendril grabbed his arm and darkness loomed above him. The whites of Pride's teeth were almost too much and he squinted.

"Any last words, Kimblee?"

Kimblee spat blood at the Homunculus and a laugh sounded in his ears. More and more tendrils grabbed at him, lifting him higher, higher, and towards the waiting jaws above.

For a moment he saw red.

And then he felt blinding pain— like swords and teeth digging into him, into his body, ripping and tearing into him.

If he could, he probably would have screamed.

For a moment there was nothing.

And then there were wails of torment everywhere, echoing and resounding like a cruel symphony in his ears.

.:.:.:.:.

Part of Edward was angry— no, beyond angry.

He was fucking pissed off.

How the fuck was it fair that after all this time (six months! Six!) the last time that Edward saw that _bastard_ Firework-show was inside of _Pride_?

Not in Kanama with his humanity back and laughing at some horrible joke that one of the citizens made. Not in some far off city with Heinkel talking about the pros and cons of wearing military-grade boots everywhere no matter what the style of one's clothes were otherwise. Not behind bars with a smug look still on his face as he teased he and Alphonse about something trivial. Not even on death row months in the future like the man would sometimes joke about.

No, it was just after that old man had told them that he expected all of them ( not just Kimblee! All of them! ) to come back. It was the day after the bastard had jokingly told him that when all was said and done he'd teach him how to tie a necktie from behind bars.

It was irrational, especially since there was an even bigger battle going on above them, but Edward Elric was pissed off.

(Deep down he felt like he had known, though, that Kimblee must not have gotten out alive against Pride when Pride showed back up, sneering and gloating.)

It _hurt_ something inside of Edward when he turned himself into a Philosopher's Stone and invaded Pride. Not because of the process, but because he saw him, standing as calmly as could be among the millions of anguished souls, still dressed in that black tank top that Edward had transmuted his shirt into. Still dressed in those cargo pants that Greed had told him looked unflattering on him only to get an explosion to the face.

Hurt because _goddammit he promised he would teach him!_

Because what the hell was he supposed to tell Heinkel, who most definitely knew about it already because he had to have _been there_.

Because what the hell was he supposed to tell Darius or Alphonse or even Scar—

Because even though he didn't want to admit that the psychopath meant something to him, he _did._

He remembered— he knew, somehow— that his birthday had passed. Wished him a happy birthday the day before.

He had taught him a lot about the ins and outs of the world that wasn't in books but something found in cultures. About people that others wouldn't bother to think twice about in a positive light.

He had put Alphonse before himself and faced two Homunculi alone and _goddammit_ he had _promised_!

In a flash of anger, Edward wanted so badly to kill Pride— to destroy him entirely instead of reversing him to what he was at the very beginning.

But something stopped him. A pair of piercing silver eyes.

" _You have a resolve not to kill…"_

Edward closed his eyes and forced himself to let go of the anger for revenge.

The last glimpse of Kimblee he saw was a faint smile and a wave over his shoulder as he walked into oblivion.

.:.:.:.:.

With one of Alphonse's bony arms wrapped around his shoulder, supporting him, Edward gazed back at Truth, the white figure sitting alone watching them in front of the Gate.

"Would you take something from me if I asked you something else, Truth?" He asked suddenly. The being's head tilted, the grin never leaving their face.

" **Normally, yes, I would,"** they said before holding up a hand. **"But you have certainly made life more interesting for me. I'll give you one free question."**

Alphonse looked up at him, brows furrowed and worried, but Edward had one thing he had to ask Truth before returning to the other side. Truth would be the only one who could answer it, after all.

"An alchemist was consumed by Pride. His name was Solf Josiah Kimblee and he was a genius with a photographic memory," he began. "When all the souls from the Homunculi— from the Philosopher's stone in Pride— were released… did they come here? Did he?"

Truth seemed to pause before giving a shrug with their ever-present wide grin.

" **Who do you think paid your toll for your brother instead of you?"** the deity asked and Edward felt his blood run cold, deep sadness taking root in his heart. The white being 'tsk'd, but continued.

" **But the one you seek… that I cannot answer you. That is for you to find, Mister Alchemist."**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched Hamilton recently and I've got The Reynold's Pamphlet stuck in my head.
> 
> Anyways, the only reason why Kimblee was able to match wrath at all was uh. fanfiction. I literally don't think that Kimbelee could match and dodge him in canon, especially after being in prison for 6 years.
> 
> Extra Notes:
> 
> Kimblee handed the other stone to Al so Pride wouldn't be stronger, but he was given power and fixed up by Father when he and wrath returned anyways. I killed him because I literally couldn't think of a way to make it so that Edward didn't get possessed by Pride.
> 
> The reason why Kimblee didn't step in when like, Roy was being forced to transmute, was because he was still assimilating since in this AU Kimblee's absolute fucked up and insane "i love to listen to suffering" side had to overtake the "Welcome to Kanama, my name's Josiah my brother is Jonas and he likes to kick my shins" side. So it takes more of him mentally becoming that Ishval-madness-self before he can keep his own separate form. and then he proceeds to, in a tldr, call pride a bitch.
> 
> Also, angy ed is angy because Dadblee ™ But Ed gets to keep his alchemy from a cost that was paid in advance.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YALL THOUGHT I WAS JUST GONNA END THERE? [cackles]

Kimblee first woke up screaming and laughing.

Or trying too, at least.

Blood was pouring from his lips as he jerked, vision clouded with the red haze as wailing and crying from the stone rang out in his ears. Taunting laugher and echoing noise resounded from everywhere as strong hands struggled to pin him down.

There was more yelling and a sharp pain was stabbed into his arm.

That only made it worse as he jerked his arm away, tearing something and white-hot pain shot up his shoulder.

His hands instinctively moved together, but before his fingertips could even touch, his wrists were wrenched apart. He jerked again, trying to free his arms from the hands grasping his wrists.

Hands that dragged him down as he separated himself from the millions of anguished souls.

Every touch, every hand on him made him want to vomit.

He couldn't see, couldn't breathe, and all he could hear was torment mixed in with yelling and laughter. A stark white grin stretched too impossibly wide was seared into his mind as he was stuck again and again with needles and his neck was warm and wet with blood.

His struggling was becoming sluggish and still, he screamed out, clawing and fighting the hands that grabbed him, that pulled him down, down into oblivion—

After one final stab, he fell still and his struggling stopped, eyes falling closed again.

And then nothing.

The second time his eyes opened, it was much calmer. His mind was sluggish, hazy. He was drifting and felt as if he was floating. Drugged and barely awake.

A heavy weight was resting against his leg and the faint glow of light under a closeddoor cast deep shadows that sent a tremor down his spine.

Shadows— _turn the light out, he'll come back_ — it hurts. Oh god— _it hurts! It's tearing, biting, ripping, slashing—_

He couldn't breathe— couldn't remember how to breathe—

He jerked weakly, sluggishly realizing that he was bound down at his wrists and legs, and a weak spark of panic shot through his mind. But then something stuck him in the arm and then darkness consumed his vision again and he was drifting once more.

The third time he woke, he woke to voices. Muddled shouting and hushed tones— a voice that was steadily raising and he was certain that it was Edward.

No. That wasn't possible.

Edward was alive, and he was dead. He traded his own self, his own soul, and the souls in Pride that agreed, to pay whatever Edward had to for his brother. Edward wasn't allowed to be dead—

A blurry form hovered into his line of sight and he faintly realized that there was a warmth holding onto his hand. He was still bound, he hazily realized, eyes unfocused and by gods, he must still be drugged. Drugged so much that he could barely remember anything, barely register anything else aside from his previous train of thought.

There was muffled noise, someone said something but he couldn't tell what— gods his ears were ringing and he could still hear the symphony of torment from the stone.

He couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and then darkness engulfed him like an embrace again.

He remained in and out of consciousness, never fully aware of what was going on but throughout his wakings, there was always… something— someone?— nearby.

At some point, the bonds tethering him down were removed, and at some point when he woke he remembered how to breathe.

Sometimes yelling could be heard from far away from different voices.

Edward. Darius. He could pick those two out in those small moments of clarity.

(Greed… where was Greed? The bastard was never far from them all…)

Mustang, he heard once or twice. Zampano and Jerso. Alphonse. He knew Alphonse's voice. Edward always with him.

Kimblee finally woke in a fully lucid state to Edward yelling in the next room over and the throbbing pain of an IV in his arm. A much larger hand was grasping his and he made an attempt to turn his head— only for a sharp pain to shoot up into his skull from his neck. He screwed his eyes shut and sucked in a sharp breath through his teeth.

"Solf?"

He blearily opened his eyes again. Heinkel leaned over him, dark circles under his eyes and brows furrowed. Worry easily discernible on his face.

He opened his mouth to speak, only for another sharp of pain to shoot through his skull when he did. He snapped his jaw shut, wincing both from the pain and the sharp and loud click of his teeth that resounded in his head.

"Shit," Heinkel breathed before he left his field of view again and he vaguely heard the blonde leave and flag down a nurse. The yelling from Alphonse stopped and then Heinkel was back next to him, his larger hand holding onto his lightly.

It didn't take long for the nurse to arrive with… Ah… oh…

Kimblee's eyes widened a bit at the familiar face of Tim Marcoh. He was glad to see he lived, though he refrained from greeting him.

He wasn't stupid and if trying to talk shot that pain up into his skull, he wouldn't be trying it again anytime soon.

"How are you feeling, Kimblee?" the doctor asked and he grimaced but shifted, lifting his free arm up with some effort. His body felt so heavy, and the same feeling of _not his_ crawled across his skin again.

' **Hazy… horrible… what happened?'** he signed shakily and the best he could with one hand. It took a moment but, recognition flashed across Marcoh's face. It seemed like he knew Amestrian Sign Language.

The Doctor sighed a bit as the Nurse shuffled about, checking the drip bag and IV.

"You've been out for around a two, almost three weeks…" he said. "We weren't sure if you would make it at all, the first night you woke you nearly killed yourself. It took nearly a fatal amount of sedatives to get you back to sleep so we could operate again. It doesn't speak well to know that you've built up such a tolerance, but that's a problem for another time."

A ghost of a smile appeared across the doctor's face. "You have an intense desire to live, Kimblee. Or so Edward says."

Kimblee thought for a second before spelling out **'E-D'** then the sign for 'alive' followed by a questioning look. He would have to figure out official sign names for them all soon.

"Yes, he's alive," Marcoh assured him. "He and Alphonse have gotten their bodies back."

He felt a bit of happiness upon hearing that before he paused. **'** **Why the yelling?'**

Both Marcoh and Heinkel grimaced, Heinkel's hand tightening around his own.

"There is… conflict on what to do with you, Solf," Heinkel sighed. "Considering your… past record."

Kimblee snorted before wincing in pain. **'Options?'**

"As of now?" Marcoh sighed, shaking his head as he pulled a stool over to sit. "Prison for life, Death Row, or spending the rest of your life in Ishval."

' **I feel like I'm missing something,'** He signed before holding up his hand in the universal sign for 'stop'. **'What's this about Ishval?'**

"That is true, we should probably catch you up on the current events," Marcoh mused before he cleared his throat and began.

.:.:.:.:.

The short version of events after Pride was destroyed and Kimblee entered Limbo was that Edward defeated the Father after Alphonse traded his soul for Edward's arm and after Greed sacrificed himself in order to break down Father's body into the weakest substance possible— or at least the weakest form or Charcoal, apparently. After the Promised day there had been a lot of clean up that was needed, considering how it was technically done during a rather violent Coup.

It had been Edward who found him in the aftermath, sprawled out on the floor of the underground chamber near the remnant of Pride. Kimblee vaguely remembered something from then, but even his photographic memory couldn't grasp eveything when he was a tad distracted with quite literally choking on his own blood.

No one was sure how he appeared since Marcoh confirmed that he saw Pride eat him alive. Kimblee had speculations, but nothing concrete. He would need time to go through everything in his memory once the drugs in his system were gone. Still, it was strange to be referred to as having been eaten alive.

He had been in the hospital since the end of the Promised Day.

In regards to the rest of the Nation, the blame was pushed onto Brigadier Generals Cremin and Edison— it took a moment for Kimblee to place the names and faces, as his head was still hazy from the drugs being pumped into his body.

Mustang was negotiating with Grumman— who was being set up by the 'rebels' to become the next Füher— on starting an Ishval Restoration act. Mustang was going to head it from Central with Major Miles on the ground in Ishval— with Scar, though Mustang hadn't been told _that_ bit yet.

Speaking of Mustang, Marcoh had thanked him for giving Alphonse both Philosopher's stones that he had been in possession of. Using one of them, Marcoh had been able to restore Mustang's eyesight _and_ Jean Havoc's legs. That stone from Ishval was all used up now and a part of Kimblee felt relieved for some reason he couldn't place.

So that was good news at least.

And between everything else, there was a heated debate about what to do with _him_.

From what Heinkel and Marcoh had told him, along with what Miles and Scar had discussed with the two, prison would be the most… humane option of the three on the table— Death row was death row, there wasn't anything special about that, but being sent to Ishval for the restoration act was a risky bet _at best_.

Kimblee was known among the Ishvalans as the scourge of Ishval, and given the chance, they would kill him. And another war would break out.

( Maybe. It depended on how much the Military cared about if he lived or died— it wasn't much, he knew, so it was a toss-up. )

Alphonse and Edward were adamant about him being taken off of Death Row for his role in stopping the Promised Day, at least. Kimblee personally considered it to be minor in the grand scheme in terms of what was seen— all he did was keep Edward safe and make sure Heinkel didn't die against Pride and Wrath— but Edward, Marcoh had said, was claiming otherwise.

Apparently, the boy had sensed him from within the Stone when he was defeating Pride. Calling Pride out again had been a memorable experience.

Imagine that. The blonde boy always did manage to do the impossible.

But, Kimblee was hesitant to agree with them about prison being humane. In truth, he would prefer to have been left dead than deal with Prison ever again. The physical aspects were still obvious on his body, and when his hands were separated, he was practically defenseless.

He didn't exactly wish to deal with that again.

Not when he was still trying to remove the tendrils of madness and voices of anguish from when he _was_ inside the stone. And not after tasting the warmth of belonging and care from others.

No, he had quite bluntly signed to Marcoh that he would rather they just put him down like a dog and his body left to rot than put him back in solitary— especially with six months of being used to the noise that Edward, Darius, and Greed had kicked up and the almost constant knowledge of Heinkel being nearby.

Heinkel knew enough Amestrian Sign Language to catch what he had been saying and _vehemently_ protested. So much so that it had caught him off guard and he had stared at the blonde in bewilderment for more than a few moments.

That was all Marcoh seemed to need though, vowing the two of them that he'd find a different alternative before giving Kimblee a general rundown on _his_ medical condition.

He had a number of stitches from the various wounds he had gotten from Pride and Bradley— the one in his shoulder had apparently been the most life-threatening of the stab wounds.

Bradley had been aiming for the arteries in his upper arm but had missed— just barely.

Marcoh had done all he could with the Philosopher's stone, but even there were limits to what he was allowed to do under the eye of the Military. Kimblee wouldn't ever be in his former top condition— which wasn't that impressive, all things considered. When all was healed and done, his lungs would be weaker for sure and his vocal cords, as of now, had yet to heal. The damage done to them was still being estimated.

But, Marcoh had saved him from death, so Kimblee had told him that it didn't matter that it would take a longer time to recover his voice. Marcoh had assured him that it would come back, however, so he wasn't too worried.

It had been about five days since that conversation, and Kimblee was fine with still being in recovery.

He found that he slept a lot more— though with the number of sedatives and pain killers he was on he wasn't surprised— and still couldn't talk without a searing pain shooting up from his throat to his skull. Luckily Heinkel knew enough Amestrian Sign Language to get by in conversations, albeit clumsily, and Marcoh had dropped by once to deliver a notebook and pen for him. Marcoh managed to get him transferred to an inclined bed so he could stay slightly sat up without being in pain, which he was grateful for.

He quite enjoyed Marcoh, and Marcoh seemed to not mind him, now that he knew Kimblee wasn't going to use psychological warfare on him or anyone else. He was bringing him updates on the Mustang Situation, as they called it, and the Elric Brothers' recovery.

Alphonse especially would need a long time before he was back and up on his feet, so imagine Kimblee's surprise when two golden-haired boys poked their heads into his hospital room.

"Mister Kimblee!"

"Fireworks-Bastard!"

The Alchemist startled, looking up from his book. Heinkel had left to go grab something to eat, so he hadn't been expecting anyone, let alone the Elric brothers, to show up.

He held up a hand in a wave as he closed the book and set it to the side while Edward wheeled his brother into the room in a wheelchair. Alphonse was pretty gaunt still, though he was slowly putting on more weight.

Apparently, he was going through physical therapy with Havoc as well.

"How are you feeling?" The younger brother asked. And there was no doubt that this boy was Alphonse, with his golden hair and eyes. And obviously the voice.

Kimblee picked up the notebook, scrawling out an answer.

'Better than a few weeks ago apparently. You?'

Alphonse smiled slightly. "I'm doing alright," he said, "It's a bit weird to be human again, honestly."

Kimblee hummed softly, one of the few noises he could make without hurting himself.

'Dysphoric or just not used to everything yet?' he wrote, tapping the notebook with his pen.

"Mostly just not used to everything," the boy confirmed and Edward cleared his throat.

"What about you? You were… a soul for like, half a day," he asked. "Do you need me to run and get anything for you?"

Kimblee frowned, tapping the pen a bit before he started to write again.

'It's not Ideal,' he started, thinking. 'I'm still adjusting to being physical. The time spent in the stone felt much longer than a day. But until I'm sure what's going to happen, I'll just have to deal with it. Should I return to Central prison, then I don't get the luxury to find something that is "alright" for my body. But thank you.'

Alphonse frowned. No doubt that Edward had told him about everything their group went through while the two were recovering. He didn't mind.

"That hardly seems fair," Alphonse sighed. Kimblee shrugged the shoulder that wasn't attached to the arm with the IV.

'Prison isn't fair. If there's one thing you should know about prison is that size matters. That's why I was glad I was at least in solitary for the most part. You only get roughed up by the wardens if all goes well.'

Both boys made faces at that as Edward pulled a stool up to the bed.

"Oh, I've been meaning to ask," Edward started, changing the subject. "How exactly did you manage to keep your individuality in Pride?"

Now that certainly was a question.

'I spent six years with a Philosopher's stone. The first instance you use it, it digs into your mind, whispering words of power and promises. You go mad,' he wrote out, pausing for a second to think. 'It took me two years to come out of that haze. Drunk on power and finally being at the top. The remaining four years I spent listening and assimilating with the souls inside the stone. I suppose it was just that.'

He paused again before he wrote one more thing down under the statement.

'And self-control.' he decided, holding the notebook up to them with a flat look.

Edward snorted before becoming serious. "Truth said that my toll was paid before I arrived in the Gate," he said and Kimblee's eyes widened a bit before he let out a soundless sigh.

'When I arrived with the rest of the souls from Pride, I had been curious, and Truth had also been curious— or feigned so— about me. How I kept myself from falling into the torment and becoming nothing but another soul,' he wrote out, pausing to show the two brothers. He had already told Marcoh and Heinkel this already— as soon as the sedatives had worn off. Though another dose had to be administered almost immediately, Photographic memories were great until there was far too much to take in and remember at once.

Kimblee spun his pen between his fingers before he continued to write. 'Then, Truth asked what would be the equivalent to all the souls in Pride. Pride had millions, and I was the only one who could keep my form. He wanted a game. Perhaps for me to bargain the souls for my own life. To return to the living.'

"You didn't though," Alphonse murmured. Kimblee tapped his pen once.

'No,' he wrote. 'I wasn't interested so I asked for a chance to bargain for something else instead of took a bit, and by then you were fighting the Father, but I had to reenter the souls and ask every single one of them. They agreed, and we all offered our collective millions of souls for Alphonse's soul and body. From what I gather, when you came through yourself you were told that you could simply take Alphonse and go.'

"But why would you—" Edward started before all three of them startled as the door slammed open.

"Mister Kimblee, sir!"

Oh, there was Darius. He had wondered where the other Chimera had been in the meantime.

The Gorilla Chimera strode in, with Zamapano and Jerso behind him. All three seemed to be in good health, their injuries mostly healed though considering how long Kimblee had been out, it wasn't surprising, really.

"How are you feeling, sir?" Darius asked, the three stopping beside the bed. "Heinkel told us you've been up for a few days. Apologies that we couldn't come sooner."

' **It's no matter. Recovery is long. I've been sleeping mainly,'** he signed with one hand without thinking, the other one already writing the same response down.

He glanced up after a second, holding the notebook for them to see. Jerso glanced to Zampano before both of them grinned.

' **How much longer do you think you'll be in recovery?'** Jerso signed though it was a bit clumsy and slow. Kimblee blinked.

"These two chuckle-nuts and I have been brushing up on our Amestrian Sign," Darius said, grinning a bit at their former commander's confusion.

' **Really?'**

"Yep," Zampano sighed, arms crossed. "Apparently, besides us and Heinkel, Doctor Marcoh's the only one who knows what you're saying fluently. All the other guys either never bothered learning or are too rusty. The doctor bullied Grumman and Mustang into learning."

' **I'd have loved to see—'** he paused before he quickly signed the sign for 'Crystal' then 'Doctor'. **'M-A-R-C-O-H do that.'**

"Already got a sign name for the guy? Impressive," Darius observed. Kimblee gave him a flat look that conveyed the feeling of 'who do you think I am?' before he pointed to Alphonse.

He signed the sign for 'Armor' before lightly thumping his chest. He then pointed to Edward before making the signs for 'full' and 'metal'.

"Wha-!? You have those three but not me?" the Gorilla Chimera cried. "I thought we were buds!"

The flat look increased in intensity before he laughed silently before pointing to Darius and then making the sign for Gorilla with one hand, then combined it with 'man'.

The man slumped his shoulders. "I should've figured."

Jerso laughed. "I can assume we're all the same then?"

Kimblee nodded then shrugged, pointing to Jerso and then making the sign for 'Frog' combined with 'fish'.

Zampano's was 'Boar' and then 'spine'.

He paused before showing them Heinkel's— 'Lion' but then instead of letters he gently tapped the spot over his heart.

The both of them pat Darius, though grinned widely at the open display of affection towards the last of their Quad before Edward finally broke he and his brother's confused silence.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" he asked, eyes narrowing with determination as Alphonse laughed softly. "And where can I learn?"

"That, Edward, was Amestrian Sign Language, and I have a few books I'll send for so you can learn," Marcoh's voice said from the door. The three Chimeras moved to the end of the bed, allowing Kimblee a clear look at the door and he suppressed a grimace, seeing Mustang, Grumman, and Miles behind Marcoh.

Behind them all was Heinkel, holding a tray of food and looking less than thrilled at the three's appearances. Marcoh's expression wasn't much better, but they all crossed the room and over to him.

"How are you feeling, Kimblee?" Marcoh asked. Kimblee raised a brow.

' **No better than the last time you asked, doctor."**

He chuckled. "I suppose that would be the case," he said. "Still, no major pain?"

' **I'm certain that you'd know if I was.'**

Marcoh nodded. Somehow, Heinkel seemed to always know if he was in pain and would find someone to alert.

Kimblee's eyes moved from Marcoh to Grumman, who had taken a seat patiently at his bedside. Heinkel had moved to the other side of the bed, sitting in his usual chair as he set the tray down on the side table.

Kimblee sighed silently but picked the pen up again.

'And how may I be of service to you, Lieutenant General Grumman?'

He held it up to them, a polite but distant smile on his face. Mustang stood behind Grumman, as did Miles, and both of them wore masks of impassivity.

Grumman's own was of a polite, grandfatherly smile, and had he not been on edge, Kimblee would have probably relaxed.

"Personally, I was curious on your condition," the man said, "I've been making my way through all the hospitalizations slowly."

'Quite a lot of time for the rumored next Füher to be taking out of his schedule.'

"Is it now?" the man asked, tilting his head.

Kimblee just raised a brow in return.

'I apologize for my rudeness but why are you here, Sir?'

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's one more chapter after this one.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> We never really learned how the fuck kimblee stayed as kimblee aside from "ah yes. these noises? a soothing lullaby" like b ? what ? so im going off of the idea that the more accustomed to torment someone is— either the actual act or the sounds— the easier it is to keep their sense of self. But they also have to have an insane amount of personal self control.
> 
> once again, my weird ass au, my weird ass rules. Kimblee and the souls from Pride collectively agreed that because Edward had released them, they would pay for Edward's toll so yeah, Ed kept his alchemy. (bonus, the souls silently conveyed to Truth to send Kimblee back too)
> 
> Prison is not easy. The physical aspect in losing weight and injury is there and I've already explained it, and the psychological aspect is there too.


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so starts the last chapter. Warning, this one does imply nonconsent at one point, do read carefully.

The tension in the room that Kimblee created with just one sentence was almost impressive.

Mustang bristled slightly and Miles' shoulders tensed at the plainly written sentence. Kimblee was cutting right to the chase and he knew that they knew that. He wasn't going to beat around the bush when it came to this matter.

Grumman's smile fell and he crossed his legs, folding his hands into his lap.

"Straight to the point, aren't you, Kimblee?" the man said, eyes serious as he reached up and took his glasses off. There was silence as he cleaned them before he put them back on.

"I'm sure Doctor Marcoh has told you the choices we're faced with?" the older man asked. Kimblee simply tapped his pen once to signal 'yes'.

"Understand that while Bradley might have signed the papers allowing you to walk free, you still committed a number of war crimes in Ishval against the Ishvalan people—"

Kimblee held a hand up, eyes half-lidded in both boredom and exhaustion.

'With due respect, sir,' he wrote, 'You cannot tell me that I will be put in jail or executed for my deeds in Ishval while excusing those of Colonel Mustang behind you.'

Marcoh bit his lip, glancing away as Mustang bristled. Grumman's face remained the same, but there was a slight stiffening in his body.

Kimblee continued, setting the pen down and choosing to sign instead.

' **Furthermore, there are others. What of Major and General A-R-M-S-T-R-O-N-G? Both partook in the Genocide. Or Lieutenant H-A-W-K-E-Y-E? Perhaps you'd like me to name more? What of you? You also took part, though not in combat. What of the rest of the M-U-S-T-A-N-G team still alive? And I hate to bring him in because I consider him a friend, but what about Marcoh? Using a scapegoat is unbecoming of you simply because you dislike me and my methods. Need I remind you that burning to death is considered one of the most painful ways to die? I killed instantly for the most part.'**

The tension in the room was heavy as Kimblee dropped his hands, brow raised in a challenge. Grumman sighed.

"I certainly should know better than to test the acclaimed Crimson Lotus," the man chuckled, though it held no humor. "You are correct, and though you still have the blood of seven officers on your hands, I do believe we can write those off due to affiliation with Bradley."

' **Six.'**

Grumman blinked. "Pardon?"

' **I only killed six officers. The Homunculus Envy had been masquerading as the seventh, and if what I was told is correct then Mustang—'** At this, he simply made the sign for 'horse' and Marcoh and the Chimeras had to hide snorts at that. **'— was the one who killed Envy.'**

Mustang shook his head. "No. Envy killed themselves after fighting me."

' **Oh, you actually responded to that, Mustang.'**

The Colonel grit his teeth but refused to answer. Grumman hummed.

"Alright then, I suppose we can amend that in the paperwork," he said simply. "And provided you agree to our terms, we can continue to amend the papers."

' **If it involves me being back in prison, then I refuse your terms before we even start.'**

"Major Kimblee, It would be best if you listened before deciding so quickly," Miles warned, speaking up for the first time, lips drawn into a frown. Kimblee wished he could have interrupted him the moment he started speaking.

' **No, Major. I get to have the say in this. None of you have been to Prison in my skin,'** He pointed out, eyes narrowing as he signed, though he felt something that was a mix of ire and desperation in his chest.

He needed them to understand fully that he would not be going back to prison happily and he felt his blood roaring in his ears.

' **Because I would personally like to live out the rest of my days** _ **unviolated,**_ **if possible. It's hardly pleasant waking up every day praying to a god you don't believe in that you'll just be** _ **left alone because you're not scheduled to shower for another week.**_ **'** He vaguely realized his breathing was speeding up and his signing was doing the same but getting sloppier as well, but he continued, almost as if he was in a tunneled haze of explanation.

' **No way to cleanse off the** _ **filth**_ **from others until then and it just gets worse from there. So if you want me back there you'll have to drag me there dead—'**

A hand grasped his own and he snapped from his tirade, feeling tremors rattling his body as he panted. Heinkel gently held his hand between his larger ones, brows furrowed and eyes… His eyes were so unbelievably sad.

Kimblee startled at the look, surging forwards despite the sharp pain that shot through his entire body— both from his still-healing throat and his stitches as his shoulder was jostled too much in the action.

' **No, no, you're upset, why?'** He signed frantically.

What had he signed when he blanked out as the desperation induced hysteria took over him? Oh god, what had made Heinkel upset like that—

Heinkel shook his head, gently settling him back down but he made a distressed noise, reaching up to the blonde. Heinkel took his hands in his for a moment, squeezing them before letting go of one.

He saw Marcoh shoot the three officers a look and Edward had leaped from his seat sometime during the frantic one-sided conversation. The boy didn't seem to be able to follow through with the signing, but he could tell distress when he saw it. And If Alphonse had the strength he probably would have followed his brother, but he was instead gripping the armrests of his wheelchair tightly.

"It would be _best_ ," Marcoh was saying, emphasizing the word, "If we allowed Kimblee to calm down a bit. State of the Military or not, I won't be letting any of you distress a patient no matter the crimes he committed under Bradley. He's torn his stitches I believe."

Kimblee reached over, tugging the Doctor's sleeve before tapping twice on his arm for 'no'.

His stitches weren't torn, tugging at the injury and skin, and incredibly painful, but not torn out. _Yet._

Marcoh looked conflicted but sighed.

"If you're sure…" he said but turned back to Grumman, Mustang, and Miles. "If we're in agreement now, Kimblee will not be returning to Prison, or at least not Central's and not without protection."

' **Preferably not at all…'** Kimblee signed weakly, eyes closing as he tried to block out the pain from his injuries again.

"Preferably not at all," Marcoh agreed.

"Before you guys continue, what exactly just happened?" Alphonse asked in a small voice. Zampano made a disgruntled noise.

"Prison memories, most likely," he sighed and Kimblee opened his eyes slightly, sweat beading his forehead and he tapped twice against the bed with his fingers. Zampano nodded, understanding and passing the message along to Jerso and Darius with similar, hidden taps. All three of the Chimeras shifted a bit closer to the hospital bed.

Grumman cleared his throat. "Very well, apologies, Major Kimblee," he said, brows furrowed. "As I had said, you are aware of the three options that we had previously discussed."

Kimblee fumbled for his pen, but grasped it, tapping it once against the notebook to indicate understanding. Grumman nodded.

"Both Fullmetal and Alphonse Elric have argued against them, quite vehemently," Mustang continued for Grumman. "Their word states that you had been helping them before your… injury."

He rolled his eyes and Edward huffed a bit as Mustang indicated to his neck. **'You can call it a death Mustang. I** _ **did**_ **die. I just happen to not be dead now.'**

Mustang scowled and Kimblee mentally counted that as a small victory. Heinkel snorted, but his lips twitched upwards and Kimblee settled down, squeezing the blonde's hand.

"We've chosen to believe them, and your reaction just now leaves the final option of the three," he continued. Kimblee raised a brow at the pause but tapped his pen once.

' **Ishval.'**

Miles nodded. "Yes. The future Ishvalan Restoration Unit. But here in it, we have a problem. You are too well known, _Major_ , as the Scourge of Ishval. Even under the protection of Amestris, there is no lying in that there would be even more tensions mounted atop of the relations if you were there."

' **And so all options have been shot down,'** Kimblee signed with a hum. Grumman nodded.

"Almost all."

' **Pardon?'**

"Whoa, whoa, what do you mean, sir?" Jerso asked as well, brows furrowed. "You told us that those were the only three options!"

"A new one was just discussed," Mustang said, "Ishval isn't the only country that we wish to establish better relations with. We currently would like to open up trade with Xing for obvious reasons, but that's not all."

"The countries at our borders aren't the only ones that exist," Grumman added, leaning back in his chair and locking his eyes with Kimblee's.

' **You want me to be an ambassador.'**

"Of sorts. Understand that keeping you in Central could cause problems should you be instated as an officer on the ground," the man said slowly. "You are still a Major, yes, and still part of the Amestrian Military… but something tells me that you'd be less than pleased to be stuck at a desk job."

A grimace from him was all Grumman needed to know the answer to that.

"That's what I thought," he chuckled before he leaned forwards. "Though I understand that, while a skilled negotiator and a former member of the State's Logistics Branch, you're also not one for politics?"

' **Never liked them, but I know how to deal with them.'**

"Understandable! I admit that I'm not overly fond of the pretense that follows them either," he admitted, a jovial attitude back but Kimblee wasn't falling for it. "No mistake, though, you can certainly come back to Amestris, you wouldn't be banned, no! You'd be… more or less traveling and gathering information."

Kimblee hummed, closing his eyes. **'A pre-political move. Essentially, I'd be looking to see if making an alliance would be worth it in the first place.'**

"Exactly."

He let out a soundless sigh, opening his eyes again. **'I don't mind doing that. As a child I had always wanted to travel.'**

"Oh? And you were unable to?"

' **By the time I had the money, I was in prison getting the shit beaten out of me or violently held down for being the smallest and easiest of the prisoners.'**

Grumman hummed, then changed the subject at the flat look that both Marcoh and Chimeras were shooting him.

"Still, I can't promise the task will be without danger. Amestris has never before opened relations outside of our immediate neighbors."

' **Once again, I don't mind. I have my Alchemy, and I'm not a helpless upper-class military officer. I grew up fighting for my life, but…'** He indicated to his throat and the bandages around it. **'We'd have to wait.'**

Marcoh nodded in agreement. "A rough estimate until you can get up and out of the hospital would be another week or so. Just until your voice returns."

' **Oh, thats quick then. A week is the estimated return?'**

Marcoh nodded. "The Larynx needs one to two weeks to recover with a normal surgery," the man told him with a light smile. "Even with Alchemy. Your's was… essentially shredded. We used the Philosopher's stone to piece it back together and your body worked overtime to heal itself along side of the efforts from Alchemy. Still, it was heavily damaged and you re-tore stiches once you were concious. By my own and Doctor Knox's estimates, since you're still in pain and your voice hasn't returned as of yet, you'll be out for another week. Even then there's still a matter of not overusing it and your physical recovery on top of that."

Kimblee let out a pleased hum at that before Grumman cleared his throat. Marcoh flushed a bit, coughing as the Lieutenant General gave them an amused smile.

"Very well, within a week, I'll return with the official mission and its orders drawn up for you, Major."

' **Thank you.'**

"I do have a question," Heinkel spoke up, eyes slightly wary as Kimblee glanced up at him. Grumman blinked.

"Yes, Second Lieutenant?"

"Will these missions across the world be solo missions?"

Oh. Kimblee hadn't even thought of that. Grumman hummed.

"About that… Major Kimblee, Second Lieutenant Potez, you _are_ aware of the law, correct? The one that states that relations between two officers is strictly forbidden?"

To say that nearly everyone in the room stiffened— save Miles and Mustang, who must have known this was coming— wouldn't have been an overstatement. Heinkel's lips were twitching almost into a snarl as Darius shifted his footing, hands curling at his sides. Zampano and Jerso were already shifting into their usual crouches and Edward had leaped up from his seat— again. Marcoh's eyes were hard and Alphonse's lips had drawn into a frown.

For a moment Kimblee was stunned at the almost visible display of protectiveness from the other three Chimeras, the Elric Brothers, and Marcoh over him and Heinkel.

"We are," Heinkel said slowly, forcing the snarl back. "And I'm more than willing to hand over my resignation if need be, _sir_."

" **I as well, though then we would be back at square one in regard to what exactly you plan on doing with me."**

Milles looked slightly uneasy, most likely looking between the sudden hostiles from behind his goggles while Mustang's hands twitched oh-so unsubtly. There was a tense silence before Grumman held up a hand.

"Relax, Second Lieutenant Potez," the man said, "Neither of you will be forced to resign."

Another silence fell over the room, this time stunned before Alphonse broke it.

"You're letting them stay together, sir?" he asked, a tinge of what might have been hope in his voice. Grumman chortled, leaning back in his chair and handing the file back to Mustang, who took it back uneasily. It appeared he hadn't been aware of what he was holding before despite having known about what was going to happen if his and Heinkel's relationship was brought to the table.

"I don't see why not?" Grumman said, shrugging. "In terms of the law, Major Kimblee has no Military Unit, on a technicality, Major Kimblee and Second Lieutenant Potez are in separate units."

The aged man paused. "Furthermore, I'm willing to overlook this. I plan on repealing the law in the future, but for now, I will turn a blind eye. The law states that men and women, though it is certainly implied that any same-sex relationship counts as well. But we can play this as following the law to the exact letter— as, last I heard, neither of you have decided to change gender?"

His gaze shifted to Kimblee, who shrugged a bit.

' **Complicated,'** was all he signed to Grumman, who took it with a nod.

"Until I manage to get the Anti-fraternity laws repealed or changed, we can use that as a loophole," he continued before he fully addressed Kimblee. "I remember what you were like on the battlefield Kimblee. You were wild and quite frightening, but I could tell you were looking for someplace to belong."

His eyes became serious.

"Have you found it?"

Kimblee was silent for a moment before he raised his hands.

' **I have.'**

He paused as Grumman smiled, leaning back.

' **Thank you, Lieutenant General G-R-U-M-M-A-N.'**

The older man's eyes widened at the sign used directly after spelling his name out. Then he laughed.

"Well, now I have to work on repealing that law entirely, Major," he said though the chuckles as he stood. "I'll be back next week with the full assignment. Take care in the meanwhile."

Kimblee nodded, saluting him with the rest of the soldiers in the room before he, Miles, and Mustang left.

As soon as the door slid shut a collective sigh escaped the group.

"I seriously thought he was gonna Court Martial one of ya," Jerso groaned as he slumped against Zampano.

"You're telling me," Heinkel grumbled, resting his head against the bed. Kimblee pat his head with a slight smile.

It seemed as if everything would work its way out in the end.

.:.:.:.:.

It was the sharp and insistent ringing of the phone that woke them both. Kimblee grumbled into a mouth full of mane from his fiancé before he rolled over, fumbling for the phone and answering it.

"Mm?"

" _ **An early good morning to you too, Major Kimblee,"**_ Jean Havoc's overly cheery voice greeted him and he just grumbled lowly into the receiver. Havoc laughed on the other end.

" _ **Too early? That's fine! I've just got some new orders for you from Mustang down from Fürher Grumman,"**_ the man said happily before continuing. _**"A country farther west has asked for help, teaching help actually. The full file is already on its way via mail over to where you and Potez are on standby in Italy."**_

Kimblee grumbled again lowly but sat up on his elbows.

"Teaching?" he questioned, voice hoarse. Havoc hummed, though the noise sounded a bit confused as well.

" _ **No clue,"**_ the man sighed. _**"I was just relaying what Breda said to me, which is what Hawkeye told him, and Mustang told her… well, you get the idea."**_

"Hnnn…" he yawned as the Lion at his side shifted and pressed against him. "Yeah, I got it… Anything else?" A low rumble against his neck made him shiver slightly, claw-tipped hands squeezing his waist. He twisted slightly to glance back at the Lion behind him before a rough tongue dragged across his shoulder.

" _ **Not that I can think of off the top of my head,**_ _"_ Havoc was saying, the noise of tapping coming over on the phone line. _**"Oh, Doctor Marcoh says 'hi' from Ishval and Scar oh-so eloquently said 'fuck you and the cat you live with' like that would mean something to me."**_

Kimblee snorted a bit before he shuddered at the hot breath against his neck.

"Tell him I got it and to look for the damn marks on the walls because those nuggets are horrible at their job and Mustang just needs to go down there himself," he grumbled before pausing. "Relay that to Mustang too."

" _ **Roger that, sir!"**_ Havoc said. _ **"Your voice sounds shot. Make sure to rest it, and all that!"**_

"Yeah, yeah…" he grumbled, biting down on his lip as sharp teeth grazed his skin and arms wrapped around his waist and pulled him close.

" _ **Well, that's it, talk to you again later, Major!"**_

And like that, Havoc hung up. Kimblee tossed the phone back onto its receiver before falling back against Heinkel with a low moan when teeth bit into his shoulder.

"I was on the phone…" he huffed as Heinkel chuckled lowly against his neck as he shifted back into his human form. "You took too long," the man murmured and pressing a kiss to his throat. "I got bored."

"You're always bored when I'm on the phone," Kimblee complained, tilting his head back against his chest. Heinkel laughed lowly.

"Perhaps…" he mused. "New orders?"

"I have to learn how to teach," was all Kimblee supplied, nestling his face against his fiancé's neck. "Mmn… No idea what that means…"

Heinkel just huffed out another laugh, stroking his side. "Any news from Ishval?"

"Scar says fuck you."

"Of course he does."

In the past year a strange, almost friendship had struck between the two international ambassadors and the two Ishvalan leaders of the Restoration. Marcoh and Darius— who had decided to tag along with Marcoh to Ishval— certainly helped, with sending letters and calling when something came up.

After the first month, it was painfully obvious that the Alchemists that were sent in to help with the restoration had no idea what they were doing. And Kimblee was the only one who clearly remembered _how_ Ishval was on all sides.

From the phone, he instructed Darius on what to look for, and when Darius had no clue what he was talking about, he sent for Scar.

Their strange friendship was built on insults, knowledge of Alchemy, and understanding of the past. Along with copious amounts of sarcastic humor and Kimblee calling new recruits "goddamn incompetent _chicken nuggets_ " that he couldn't believe he had to tell not to blow stuff up.

Scar found that especially humorous.

Kimblee groaned as Heinkel bit his neck again, hands holding on his. "Mm.. when do we head out?" the blonde asked.

He hummed, closing his eyes, thinking.

' **Soon after the file comes in…'** he decided on signing instead of speaking. His voice never fully healed and overstraining it caused too much pain for his comfort. But it was fine, communicating with Heinkel was more than easy after a year of traveling across the world together.

Heinkel hummed, slowly working out the meaning as he felt him sign in his hands.

"It's getting sent over, then?" he asked.

' **Havoc said it was already on its way.'**

The blonde hummed again, holding him close as his thumb brushed against the simple ring on his finger. He was thinking, it seemed and Kimblee pressed a kiss to his chin. Heinkel chuckled softly, kissing his nose in return.

"I suppose I'll have to brush up on my English then."

Kimblee just hummed in return. He supposed he would have to, too. And figure out what exactly he was supposed to teach these kids that he was being sent to… teach.

Arson? Chemistry? How to overthrow the government? _Logistics?_

"You're thinking too hard again," Heinkel rumbled in his ear, making him startle before the blonde rolled them over, pinning him down. Kimblee laughed silently, but reached up and hooked his arms around his neck.

Whatever he was supposed to do could wait, there were more important _matters_ to deal with.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heinkel and Kimblee soft moment born out of hysteria? More likely than you think
> 
> I couldn’t find anything about an injured larynx, but I did read on laryngeal cancer. The recovery period is about two weeks. I extended this to much longer because Kimblee’s entire throat was destroyed and it doesn’t help that he unknowingly set back the healing further when he woke the first time.
> 
> Further Notes:
> 
> On the Anti-Frat laws, I did some research into them but there’s no concrete law in FMA aside from what is depicted in the real world’s Anti-Frat laws. Any military people out there, feel free to correct me. However, I’m basing it on very specific technicalities. From what I gather, Arakwa says that the AFL would make Roy and Riza stop working together in the same unit. Not that one or the other would be forced to resign or there would be a punishment like a court-martial or anything. The Kimblee + Chimera group wasn’t really an official Unit since Kimblee was literally just doing a “Fuck Around And Find Out Where Scar Is” mission from Bradley. I highly doubt that Kimblee has a unit, since, you know. Prison. And Grumman’s banking on Heinkel being able to keep kimblee from becoming a mass murderer again. And once again, like I stated in an earlier chapter, Kimblee plays the “lawful Chaos” card. “It doesn’t say man and man so I can do it hahahaha” ensues.
> 
> Name signs are like shorthand for someone’s name instead of Kimblee signing out each name letter by letter however he will spell the name out if he doesn’t have a name sign figured out or if he’s using it to show the sign for the first time without the person present:
> 
> Alphonse: Armor + light hit to the chest (armor for his previous form, the hit on the chest to represent ‘soul’)
> 
> Edward: Full + Metal (for obvious reasons )
> 
> Marcoh: Crystal + Doctor (Crystal Alchemist)
> 
> Heinkel: Lion + tap against the heart (chimera animal + fondness)
> 
> Darius: Gorilla + Man
> 
> Zampano: Boar + spine
> 
> Jerso: Frog + Fish 
> 
> Mustang: Horse (it's funny)
> 
> Grumman: Fürher (shows loyalty to Grumman and support of him should he be the next Fürher)
> 
> For legal reasons, I must make all State Alchemists except for Mustang have the name sign for their state title. Mustang is still a horse.
> 
> All I’m saying is that Chimera form? Yeah Kimblee’d be into that. Also I’ve seen people use fiancée or Fiancee for males and as a (while horrible) french speaker I cringe. The correct spelling for an engaged man is fiancé or fiance, depending on if you want to use the accent or not. 
> 
> If you’ve read the fanfic “Mirage” by Vyscaria on FFN then the whole ‘trusting Kimblee to know about Ishval’ and Scar and Kimblee are friends bc of situations comes from there. Also Kimblee calling new recruit alchemists “chicken nuggets”. That’s personally one of my favorite parts.
> 
> Anyway, this takes place before Ed and Al headed off to do research. Minor differences:
> 
> \- Darius, instead of going with Yoki to join a Circus, is sticking with Marcoh, Miles, and Scar
> 
> \- Kimblee knows what a chicken nugget is
> 
> \- Amestris is stuck in the 1910s, I’m chalking it up to the fact that it’s been highly militarized and Father saw no reason to “upgrade” to later 20th and 21st-century technology— even if it is military in nature. Both World Wars passed by Amestris and the surrounding countries because of how closed off that general area was.
> 
> \- There was an open-end for another potential crossover, but I don't think I'll be writing it anytime soon
> 
> Thank you for reading my self-indulgent AU featuring Kimblee! I had a lot of fun writing this. If you're interested in Star Wars, I've got the first chapter to a more fluffy and less plot-heavy fic out already. If you're into the Tolkien series and Fate Grand Order, And The Red Dracon Came is still being updated as well.
> 
> So until next time!


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